Databases Compared
Windows Database Packages
Microsoft produces 3 databases, Access, SQL Server and FoxPro.
I have experience of each of these databases, each having its own
specific strengths and target audience.
Access is primarily aimed at the desktop,
power user.
It is designed for ease of use and not specifically as a programming
development environment, although many complex business applications have
been created using Access. Access databases are not well suited to high
number of concurrent users, a maximum of 10-20 users is often quoted.
FoxPro is primarily a developers tool used for small
to medium business applications. Visual FoxPro can handle very large
volumes of data efficiently but lacks some of the features found
in top end databases such as SQL Server and Oracle. Microsoft FoxPro
applications
can be developed quicker than Access as it is a pure developer tool, but suffers from increased complexity and less widely used.
With Foxpro the developer benefits from powerful object orientated classes
component designer and a data centric language with built in database commands. These both
considerably reduces amount programming compared to non object orientated Visual Basic used in Access.
SQL Server as its name suggests is purely a server database providing one half in a Client-Server application. Front end clients can be written using Access SQL Projects or ASP.Net web applications. SQL Server applications provide
a higher level of reliability and are better suited to very high volumes
of transactions. Deployment costs are higher than Access or Foxpro. There are many rivals to SQL Server in end-end
corporate database market most notably Oracle. Reasons
to choose SQL Server. |
 |
Paul Stanley Software
North West England
Bespoke
Database
Applications
Development in Access,
Foxpro & SQL Server
|
Foxpro System Capacities
Table Size: 2GB
Fields per Table: 255
Max Record Size: 64,000 bytes
Max Records per Table: 1,000,000,000
SQL Server Capacities
Database Size: 1,000,000 TB (1 TB = 1,024 GB)
Table Size: 32 TB
Unlimited rows per table
SQL, Structured Query Language, specifies how
data is read and written from a database. FoxPro, Access and SQL
Server all use SQL statements, though there are some (annoying) differences
between the way it is implemented.
How does Visual FoxPro position in relation to Microsoft Access?
Microsoft Access, the database in Microsoft Office, is the most broadly
used and easiest-to-learn database tool that Microsoft offers. If you
are new to databases, or if you want an interactive product with plenty
of convenience, then choose Microsoft Access.
Visual FoxPro is a powerful
rapid application development (RAD) tool for creating relational database
applications. If you are a database developer who builds applications
for a living and you want ultimate speed and power, then choose Visual
FoxPro.
Other Databases
Many of the high end packages such as Oracle, Sybase, Informix also
run on Unix as well as Windows whereas Microsoft databases are all Windows
specific. For smaller Unix databases the shareware MySQL is very popular.
