Thread: [MASSMAIL]Some advice need after a 20 year gap after Ingres/GUIs

Hi,

To start I had to find out what MDBS IV is, since it caught my attention and I ended up learning a few things about the history of databases ;-).

Regarding your concern:

First you must be clear that there are many alternatives to develop graphical interfaces to work with Postgres.

So, first of all:

• You must choose and master a programming language that you feel comfortable with, Python is the one that most developers choose.
• Use a development environment suitable for the language you have chosen, there are several, but the best known is possibly Visual Studio Code.
• Choose which operating system you are going to develop with: Windows, Linux, macOS, generally most people choose Windows since you can integrate a Linux like Ubuntu using WSL.
• After you master your favorite programming language, you must select a framework that allows you to generate a graphical interface, in Python there are several such as Tkinter, wxPython or Qt among others.
• If the development is via the web, the options are many, the best known in Python would be Django for the web and FastAPI for the development of APIs via REST
• You must also have a library that allows you to connect with Postgres, in Python there is pyODBC, psycopg2 among others.

Additional resources:

Python Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWRfhZUzrAc&list=PLWKjhJtqVAbnqBxcdjVGgT3uVR10bzTEB
Python & Tkinter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQSEXcf6s2I&list=PLCC34OHNcOtoC6GglhF3ncJ5rLwQrLGnV
Python & Postgres: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miEFm1CyjfM


Greetings and luck!

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Good morning,

The end of my working life was taken up with developing and supporting a Scientific Research establishment near Warrington in the UK. I had a small team of programmer who did an excellent job for me and with me.

The software was Ingres and the main program supporting user administration on a Synchrotron was built  under OpenROAD with other developments around the on-site stores and finance  using ABF since the stores workers found this much faster than a GUI! There was also some web development use .Net practises.

This was a quite complex system in the end with nearly 200 tables.

We ended up using Ingres Replicator with the intention of running it from two sites 180 miles apart – at the time it was a pile of notquitegoodenough! This was early this century so Actian may have made some improvements since then…

 

So much for the background to establish that I am not a complete newbie, just out of the loop for a while.

 

Using Postgres and PGAdmin -4.

So, 20 years later I am developing, (unpaid) a new project for some historic railways in the UK and linking these to the development and design of a range of kits for those interested in model railways. This is getting towards 20 tables so far.

What I really need is a recommendation for the current and best practice for an easy GUI that will allow me to press a button without opening up PGAdmin or a black screen, i.e. the traditional .EXE file I can put on a button on the screen on the screen on a Windows 11 based system.

While my programming history goes back to MDBS-4 and beyond I know I have some catching up to do and while not a complete newbie, need something I can work on quickly and intuitively and inexpensively!

 

So, recommendation and possibly some consensus would be very much appreciated.

 

And apologies if I have taken up too much of your time or have placed this in the wrong forum.

 

John

-- 
Saludos,

Francisco Prado

On 4/10/24 03:11, John Bateson wrote:
> Good morning,
> 
> The end of my working life was taken up with developing and supporting a 
> Scientific Research establishment near Warrington in the UK. I had a 
> small team of programmer who did an excellent job for me and with me.
> 
> The software was Ingres and the main program supporting user 
> administration on a Synchrotron was built  under OpenROAD with other 
> developments around the on-site stores and finance  using ABF since the 
> stores workers found this much faster than a GUI! There was also some 
> web development use .Net practises.
> 
> This was a quite complex system in the end with nearly 200 tables.
> 
> We ended up using Ingres Replicator with the intention of running it 
> from two sites 180 miles apart – at the time it was a pile of 
> *notquitegoodenough*! This was early this century so Actian may have 
> made some improvements since then…
> 
> So much for the background to establish that I am not a complete newbie, 
> just out of the loop for a while.
> 
> *Using Postgres and PGAdmin -4*.
> 
> So, 20 years later I am developing, (unpaid) a new project for some 
> historic railways in the UK and linking these to the development and 
> design of a range of kits for those interested in model railways. This 
> is getting towards 20 tables so far.
> 
> What I really need is a recommendation for the current and best practice 
> for an easy GUI that will allow me to press a button without opening up 
> PGAdmin or a black screen, i.e. the traditional .EXE file I can put on a 
> button on the screen on the screen on a Windows 11 based system.

With Postgres or other similar client-server database there will be a 
need to set up the database server somewhere first, before you get to 
the GUI interface part.

Are you planning on a single instance of Postgres that folks log in to 
from multiple locations?

Or do want a stand alone setup that each user has on their machine?

> 
> While my programming history goes back to MDBS-4 and beyond I know I 
> have some catching up to do and while not a complete newbie, need 
> something I can work on quickly and intuitively and inexpensively!
> 
> So, recommendation and possibly some consensus would be very much 
> appreciated.
> 
> And apologies if I have taken up too much of your time or have placed 
> this in the wrong forum.
> 
> John
> 

-- 
Adrian Klaver
adrian.klaver@aklaver.com