>> Sure. But why couldn't they have added a button that says "yes, I 
>> actually know how to operate a computer, please stop screwing up all 
>> my formatting and just do what I tell you to do, not what you 'think' 
>> I want you to do". 
> 
> They did. You're apparently not expert enough to know where the button 
> is. :-)

Apparently. :-P

>> Or maybe released a seperate version of the software for experts or 
>> something. 
> 
> They did. It's called LaTeX.

Cute. But LaTeX is a typesetter, not a word processor.

Regardless, I use LaTeX far more than I ever use Word. At least LaTeX 
doesn't crash at you if you make a mistake. But, unfortunately, my job 
requires me to use Word from time to time.

>> It's maddening trying to build a document with complex formatting and 
>> having to constantly revert the automatic, non-deterministic changes 
>> that Word keeps applying.
> 
> Hmm. I find Word's automation in that area quite useful and usually 
> exactly what I want and expect. When it isn't, the little drop-down menu 
> on each automatic change makes it easy to fix whatever is wrong.

Lots of people keep saying this; where is this menu, OOC?

>> Well, I guess it depends who you think Access is actually aimed at.
> 
> I think the idea was it would be a back-end database for simple data 
> collection programs.

I always thought of it as a way for inexperienced people to throw 
together small databases. And in a way, it actually works quite well for 
that.

If you want to do serious database work, Access is a joke; it doesn't 
support multiple users using the database at once, the performance is 
horrible, and it has a habit of "corrupting" your database.

OTOH, if you just want to, say, record how many hours you spent working 
on each project this week, throwing together a small Access database is 
worlds simpler than setting up an Oracle server instance, configuring a 
security context, designing a database schema and writing a GUI to 
interface to it.

>> Presumably products like SQL Server are designed to be used by experts 
>> - and, correspondingly, don't have the irritating wizards.
> 
> SQL Server has the helpful wizards, instead.

Uh... do I even want to ask which tasks it automates?

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message