Re: Report generation

Rich Shepard wrote:

> On Fri, 15 Feb 2002, Holger Marzen wrote:
>
> > Run a webserver and use Perl-CGIs or PHP, e.g. Apache+PHP.
> > + No installation of client software needed.
> > - Not as "cute" as other solutions.
> >
> > Install ODBC on your Clients and Crystal Reports or MS-Access
> > + May look better (important for the ties).
> > [+ Is expensive (important for the ties).]
> > - License fees, a lot of work if there are many PCs where the client
> >   software has to be installed.
>
> Holger,
>
>   I appreciate your thoughts. The UI for the accounting software (and most
> other software I write for business use) is based on ncurses. Data entry of
> text and numbers is so much quicker, easier and error-free from the keyboard
> and without having to move the hands to a pointing device.
>
>   Personally, I do not like BUIs (Browser User Interfaces). I'm a
> touch-typist and make the most use of the trackball as a means of selecting
> the virtual console in which to type. That's why I prefer pine as my MUA,
> emacs and LaTeX for document production, and so on.
>
>   We're Microsoft-free here and have been for four years now.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Rich
>
> Dr. Richard B. Shepard, President
>
>                        Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM)
>             2404 SW 22nd Street | Troutdale, OR 97060-1247 | U.S.A.
>  + 1 503-667-4517 (voice) | + 1 503-667-8863 (fax) | rshepard@appl-ecosys.com
>                          http://www.appl-ecosys.com
>
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Like you, four years ago frustrated with microsoft, not only because of the poor

performance of its operating system and the fact that I had spent so much money
in software, software that by the time I had mastered it was already obsolete,
but because it could never work properly in a network environment; I too found
this monster called Linux. Four months after the first test run I had a Linux
network and the IT team running Linux on their computers. The best part is that,

since I have always tried to stay within the realm of ANSI standard code,
converting most of the C++ code to work under Linux did not take long. It was
the midget "Visual Basic" what delayed the full conversion. Believe it or not,
training and educating users took less time than what I had expected. In sort it

took less than a year for us to get rid of Microsoft.
Now I can honestly say that for four years we have not had a single serious
problems with the network and there has not been one single virus in the system.

Needless to say, I am very, very happy to be using Linux.

Note: Remember that when Microsoft Windows 95 came out there was a message
saying "Where do you want to go today"? Well, we had a similar message in in our

system that read, "Free at last, free at last.... FREE AT LAST!".

My two cents