Off topic: Good, inexpensive database

Posted by pereh
Oct 3, 2009 at 07:47 PM

Achim wrote:
>Hello alltogether and especially Steve Z.,
> >I’m here as a reader for some years but
>now there’s the chance for a first post (maybe my english is a bit clunky - I’m german).
> >Few days ago I stumbled upon
>http://www.brilliantdatabase.com/
>and it seems
>that it is not yet mentioned here.
>Had not much time to fiddle around with it but here’s
>what I found out so far:
> >+ starts at 79,- (One can obtain a free license for
>translating the UI into a yet missing language.)
>+ supports various types of links &
>relations
>+ uses forms instead of tables
>+ provides calendars & diagrams
>+
>supports scripts
>+ database size up to 4 GB
>+ supports rtf-fields (important for me
>as a writer)
>+ exports to Access, Word, Excel, Webpage, Email and various text
>formats
>+ imports from the same - plus Outlook and various database formats
>+
>displays forms and records in a tree
>+ supports attachments (up to 64 MB each)
>+ seems
>pretty stable so far
>+ continuous development (current version is 8.3)
> >I hadn’t
>yet the time to test it with big amounts of data, but performance with the sample
>databases seems OK
> >o it’s even a bit more geeky than Ultra Recall but also much more
>flexible - and more convenient than Access or FileMaker
> >- interface is not on the
>stylish side
>- drag & drop could be more developed
>- can create standalone databases
>(exes) but only in the sdk version - for 1500, $ :-(
>- no user forum (at least I didn’t
>find one) but lots of tutorials, videos, samples and a good help-file.
>- weak
>outlining features (only through the forms tree)
>- no mind mapping features
>- afaik
>no dedicated feature for web-capturing (maybe it’s possible with some workarounds,
>scripts or whatever)
>- no compression (besides compacting)
>- no indexing (but
>convenient search-features)
> >All in all I would say it’s a very interesting desktop
>database.(errors excepted :-))
> >best regards
> >Achim
>

Hello Achim,

there is another very important possibility this software has: it allows 1:1 and 1:n relations between database tables. For me, this is essential, because I want to build up relational databases. Now my list of suitable candidates has two entries: Alpha 5 and Brilliant DB.
Thanks very much for mentioning it here!

Peter.