I'm new to Alpha DB program, but not to DB itself, so here's some info that I tend to require and what I am looking for. I have worked with MS Access of which there are a number of things that I don't really like given the various issues that I have ran into and what they cause. Most of my work has been on the programming side of things, and I tend to have some high criteria standards that must be met. After all, people wants to work with an efficient program that produces useable results, of which a lot of that deals with the design of the application itself, but along with that also deals with how well the DB program works too.
Before I make any sort of a judgement call, I would like to find out how Alpha 5 works with the various aspects. I have just started looking at this DB program today and so far, from the few things that I have looked at, it has raised some questions. At this point of time, I can not really say much about the program for 2 main reasons:
1 I am new to the program itself, thus there may be some hidden things that isn't as easy to locate.
2 Some of the issues may be a conversion type issue like how things are done in one program is done differently in another program.
Where can I find some technical information like the following:
A full list of the various Events on both, Record level and Field Level?
What is the order of the events being fired?
A couple of such issues that I'm had to deal with in MS Access and created work arounds for:
Primary Key ID field:
MS Access only allows for incremental of the primary key by 1. However, I would like to have the primary key to do the following:
Primary ID field increment by 10
Primary ID field's one's digit is a check digit based on a particular algorythm which would be based on the rest of the primary's ID number.
Example:
10
23
37
42
54
What I had to do in MS Access:
Create a table that contains a list of all the tables in the DB Application.
Create a modulated algorythm to return to the form's code, that's calling for a new ID number of a particular table with it's new ID number. The form's code would provide this modulated algorythm with the name of the table, so as the algorythm can pull up the proper record and get the information it needs to return to the form's code the new ID number.
For each individual form that deals with creating new records, I had to put in code to request the information and put it in the form itself at the time of a new record creation, and then update the record with the information when all validation checks has been passed.
Data Validation Checks:
I had to create my own modulated data validation check code so as I can have the stringent data validation checks be done at the appropriate times and not frustrate the users. main users that were impacted by this lack of possibility before me creating my custom code were the mouse users. Had I not created this custom code, when a mouse user would click on a command button that didn't require the stringent data validation checks take place, it would cause the previous field's validation check take place, and if that data validation check failed, it would prevent the command button from ever getting the focus, thus this would lead to user frustration.
As I code, I keep 4 main general objectives in mind along with whatever the individual objective(s) is/are with the coding. The main 4 general objectives are:
Application Efficiency: This entails in how well does it use the resources, processing, memory, etc.
Reliability: This means the application works well and does not hang or create other issues. Data is as accurate as reasonably can be. Application is about as idiot proof as it reasonably can be.
Effective: The aplication does what it's meant to do within a reasonable amount of time.
User Friendliness: Application is primarily intuitive to the user. It works in a manner that can pick up what the user is doing and not frustrate the user. Of course, user training may be involved initially, but this should be met after the training.
I tend to be very critical of all 4 of these objectives to the point that most other programmers had basically said it in so many words that I'm too critical. I guess the main reasons why I'm like that is cause I have been on the data entry side myself, I have seen what others tries to do, and I also learned a lot of how computer systems works.
Given the data entry that I have done, I attempt to make the applications so as the user enters the least amount of information. That's cause after I had worked at the IRS as a data transcriber doing alpha-numeric data entry at a rate of 7000 keystrokes per hour with an error rate of 1 typo per 4100 keystroke average, and doing this for 60 to 70 hours a week with the first break of the 10 hour shift not being until 3 full hours after the shift has started, that caused CTS (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) to start setting in. The 10 hour shift only had 2 - 15 minutes of paid break and 1 - 30 minutes of unpaid break. Given this experience, I attempt to weed out as much data entry as I can.
I have done a lot of programming type work in VBA of the different office applications over the last few years and had the code to a very large percentage of the work automatically that was otherwise being done manually before I took over the Production Reporting System at the company where I currently work at. What use to take 2 personnel to validate and enter data from paper logs, and process that data, I had taken that down to a simple click of the button with the operators inputting the data via a user form.
Before I make any sort of a judgement call, I would like to find out how Alpha 5 works with the various aspects. I have just started looking at this DB program today and so far, from the few things that I have looked at, it has raised some questions. At this point of time, I can not really say much about the program for 2 main reasons:
1 I am new to the program itself, thus there may be some hidden things that isn't as easy to locate.
2 Some of the issues may be a conversion type issue like how things are done in one program is done differently in another program.
Where can I find some technical information like the following:
A full list of the various Events on both, Record level and Field Level?
What is the order of the events being fired?
A couple of such issues that I'm had to deal with in MS Access and created work arounds for:
Primary Key ID field:
MS Access only allows for incremental of the primary key by 1. However, I would like to have the primary key to do the following:
Primary ID field increment by 10
Primary ID field's one's digit is a check digit based on a particular algorythm which would be based on the rest of the primary's ID number.
Example:
10
23
37
42
54
What I had to do in MS Access:
Create a table that contains a list of all the tables in the DB Application.
Create a modulated algorythm to return to the form's code, that's calling for a new ID number of a particular table with it's new ID number. The form's code would provide this modulated algorythm with the name of the table, so as the algorythm can pull up the proper record and get the information it needs to return to the form's code the new ID number.
For each individual form that deals with creating new records, I had to put in code to request the information and put it in the form itself at the time of a new record creation, and then update the record with the information when all validation checks has been passed.
Data Validation Checks:
I had to create my own modulated data validation check code so as I can have the stringent data validation checks be done at the appropriate times and not frustrate the users. main users that were impacted by this lack of possibility before me creating my custom code were the mouse users. Had I not created this custom code, when a mouse user would click on a command button that didn't require the stringent data validation checks take place, it would cause the previous field's validation check take place, and if that data validation check failed, it would prevent the command button from ever getting the focus, thus this would lead to user frustration.
As I code, I keep 4 main general objectives in mind along with whatever the individual objective(s) is/are with the coding. The main 4 general objectives are:
Application Efficiency: This entails in how well does it use the resources, processing, memory, etc.
Reliability: This means the application works well and does not hang or create other issues. Data is as accurate as reasonably can be. Application is about as idiot proof as it reasonably can be.
Effective: The aplication does what it's meant to do within a reasonable amount of time.
User Friendliness: Application is primarily intuitive to the user. It works in a manner that can pick up what the user is doing and not frustrate the user. Of course, user training may be involved initially, but this should be met after the training.
I tend to be very critical of all 4 of these objectives to the point that most other programmers had basically said it in so many words that I'm too critical. I guess the main reasons why I'm like that is cause I have been on the data entry side myself, I have seen what others tries to do, and I also learned a lot of how computer systems works.
Given the data entry that I have done, I attempt to make the applications so as the user enters the least amount of information. That's cause after I had worked at the IRS as a data transcriber doing alpha-numeric data entry at a rate of 7000 keystrokes per hour with an error rate of 1 typo per 4100 keystroke average, and doing this for 60 to 70 hours a week with the first break of the 10 hour shift not being until 3 full hours after the shift has started, that caused CTS (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) to start setting in. The 10 hour shift only had 2 - 15 minutes of paid break and 1 - 30 minutes of unpaid break. Given this experience, I attempt to weed out as much data entry as I can.
I have done a lot of programming type work in VBA of the different office applications over the last few years and had the code to a very large percentage of the work automatically that was otherwise being done manually before I took over the Production Reporting System at the company where I currently work at. What use to take 2 personnel to validate and enter data from paper logs, and process that data, I had taken that down to a simple click of the button with the operators inputting the data via a user form.
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