Dear Christobal,
Thank you.
I have different requirements compared to many here; my databases contain few records, usually no more than 30,000-100,000 records.
I also have no network access, as I work on the server via RDP or with mod_harbour.
What is significantly increasing are notes about customers or products, which I have previously inserted into the memo file. Also, pictures.
Having these "memos" in different files allows me to start a full-text search with PS and have immediate direct access to the hits:
Link to forum post
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=44596&p=270763&hilit=powershell&sid=f305aab7597289c7306a74f445bb62cf#p270763>This simplifies programming.
I am currently working on low-level access to DBF.
I think that once I have implemented the basic functions, it will be very easy and extremely fast.
You don't even notice how much unnecessary overhead you accumulate with RDD.
Indexes are still a problem, but I think that with fast SSDs, indexes don't affect filtering and access that much. So, I plan to dismiss them.
SQL is not an alternative for such lightweight, small applications like mine.
Additionally, you are limited in developing ideas with fixed formats.When I worked with "FiveWin for Pocket PC," we didn't have a database either. Back then, I used lock files similar to how Excel or Word does it.
I think now with mod_harbour, I will solve it similarly. rlock() and flock() seem a bit unstable on the web.
It is also dangerous if the indexes are not 100% synchronized because a wrong record might be updated or deleted.
I think that the file system is underutilized as a database structure. It is difficult for us older folks to rethink.
I can still remember how the speed would drop with Windows 2000 and earlier if you had many files in a directory, and I recall that 20,000 was a limit.
But today, everything is fast and without limits.
Best regards,
Otto