[Year 12 IT Apps] Normalisation

[Savage, John L]

Hi Mark,

I’m in complete agreement with you. I wrote some small commercial FMP apps back in the 90’s and was delighted with the rapid design-develop-test-expand nature of the beast, it really is agile. Luckily I hopped on after it had become relational and was never seduced by repeating fields.

I wish it was cheaper, I’d put it through the school if they had a better pricing policy. Likewise with Adobe products.

Laurie

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Mark
Sent: Tuesday, 17 February 2015 12:13 PM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Normalisation

Hi Laurie.

Yes, Filemaker is a funny old beast. It has grown organically from primitive flat-file origins and - while it is now fully relational - it has some vestigial tonsils and appendices that perplex purists.

- Filemaker gets a slap on the wrist for retaining its atavistic (albeit very tempting) repeating fields (an array-like field) which - if used - automatically disqualify it from 1NF!

I used repeating fields over a decade ago in Rupert (my student report database) as a quick-and-dirty kludge as I hurriedly threw the first version together. Thirteen years later the repeating fields were still embedded in Rupert since their removal required a complete rebuild of the schema. While I appreciate Filemaker bravely maintaining support for repeating fields for the sake of backward compatibility, I sometimes wish it had removed them and forced me to go cold turkey, redesign the table structures and get that particular naughty monkey off my back.

- As you said, FMP does not use queries as Access does. Calculated fields are defined as fields, appear as fields, and can be used like any other field (which makes much more sense to me, AAMOF.) Unfortunately the purists see "calculated fields" and immediately brandish their garlic and crucifixes and start burning databases at the stake. But as Filemaker fans know, it does not store the results of calculations in fields so it does not violate normalisation rules. That's why I complained to the examinations unit about Question A20.

But in spite of its charming eccentricities, Filemaker is a lovely way to learn databases. Access took many years to copy Filemaker's powerful and simple drag-and-drop script writing technique. It allows instant web and LAN database publishing. There is a passionate fanbase keen to help newbies.

It's only a shame that Filemaker Corp changed their licensing for schools. I haven't checked recently, but I believe the golden days of cheap concurrent licences are gone, and they charge quite a lot for per-seat licences.

Cheers
Mark

On 17 February 2015 at 10:38, Savage, John L <savage.john.l at edumail.vic.gov.au<mailto:savage.john.l at edumail.vic.gov.au>> wrote:
I have moved to Filemaker Pro because I think it provides a smooth introduction to database development while being astonishingly powerful. Unfortunately it appears to break the normalisation rules and doesn’t really follow the standard query process at the user level. I say “Appears” because of course its calculated fields are created on the fly and are not stored so in fact it is executing queries during standard browsing as well as during the search mode.  The tricky thing is convincing students that the calculated fields that are integral to FM design are really the outcome of a query performed on the fly and created during the design stage. I think mine would have all answered D even though I’m sure B is the answer.

Laurie Savage

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au>] On Behalf Of Mark
Sent: Monday, 16 February 2015 11:38 AM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Normalisation

I sent a protest about the question to the examinations unit.
I have not heard back from them yet.


On 16 February 2015 at 10:26, Cooper, Michael J <cooper.michael.j at edumail.vic.gov.au<mailto:cooper.michael.j at edumail.vic.gov.au>> wrote:
Hi all,

Short time reader, first time writer!

Great to hear the exam report is not far away.

Like Mark mentioned in his post-moterm I am very interested in the answer to MC Q20, regarding calculated fields in a database.

We use FIleMaker Pro, only 5% of the class got correct answer (1 out of 21). I thought it was D as well.

Really like the normalisation descriptions being offered!

Michael Cooper
ICT Co-ordinator

[cid:image001.png at 01D04AAC.715EC150]
www.braybrooksc.vic.edu.au<http://www.braybrooksc.vic.edu.au>


<snip>


Mark Kelly

--

"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly, it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come."  Matt Groening

Mark Kelly
mark AT vceit DOT com
http://vceit.com



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