Computer stuff I like

Okay, after all those tirades about computer software that I don't like, it's time to make a list of computer software that I like and currently use.

First, there are the obvious web sites (Yahoo, Google, Blogger, Amazon) and desktop apps (MS Word). I like Yahoo most for its email and groups. I like Google most for its search engine and photo storing. Amazon is great for its reviews, even when not buying anything.

Then there's the second tier web sites that I rely on: WorldCat, my library's web site, and math and handwriting worksheet generators and online community forums. When my local library system doesn't own a book that I want, I use WorldCat to find the book and request an inter-library loan. I have used various math and handwriting worksheet generators, but haven't settled on favorites yet.

But I am really enamored of two *free* desktop apps that most people have probably never heard of. The first is GameMaker. It's a lot of fun to write simple games and create my own executables. Then second is Anki and I really ought to use it every day. I need to write another post extolling the virtues of Anki. Suffice it to say that I view Anki as integral to my homeschool.

14 year old software

Yesterday, I started to forgive Zoho Creator for some of its faults and was willing to give it another try. I had done web search after web search looking for a free database alternative, and come up with nothing. The only thing vaguely promising was OpenOffice Base, but it wouldn't download properly on my computer and it looked difficult to install.

However, after having given Zoho Creator many more hours, I am once again feeling like throwing in the towel. It just doesn't live up to its promises. It isn't a full featured database, and it is riddled with bugs. I'd find myself staring at the screen aggravated that I couldn't do something in Zoho Creator that would have been a snap in Microsoft Access 2.0.

I first started using MS Access 2.0 at a summer office job as an office clerk back in 1995 (14 years ago!). I liked it so much that the next school year, I took a computer science class in databases. I liked it so much that when I had to buy Office for a new computer, I got the edition with Access.

Then, on a whim, I started digging through my old CDs of computer software. There it was. Installation CDs for Microsoft Office 95, including Access. I crossed my fingers and stuck the CD in the drive. Would 14 year old software run on my computer? If it would, I know that it would do everything I wanted in a database.

But, alas, it was not to be. It installed fine, but when I went to start it, there was a nasty out of memory error message and Access refused to start. Another quick web search showed that it was a known issue and the only resolution was to upgrade. So much for 14 year old software. Sigh.

silently screaming in aggravation

I am screaming in aggravation.

My previous obsession with GameMaker is on hiatus. I love GameMaker. It offers fabulous functionality and it delivers. It also doesn't pretend to be more than it is. It doesn't offer much in the way of date and string support. So, when I decided to try to make an application to automate some of my spelling program, I decided to look elsewhere.

I wanted to build a database application. I wanted a program designed for a relational database. I wanted a scripting language robust enough to do queries/filters and to add and modify records through code. I wanted great support for strings and dates. I wanted something free. I wanted GameMaker for databases.

I didn't realize that it would be so hard to find what I wanted. After a few web searches, I found that most database stuff is geared to businesses with budgets. I worked with Microsoft Access 2.0 a lifetime ago in the summer after I graduated from college, and I would love that functionality. Unfortunately, Access is hundreds of dollars. Way out of my price range. I finally found a few online services that offered free accounts with limited functionality.

I decided to start out trying DabbleDB. The only restriction on the free account was that all data is public. Not a problem for me. This is just a spelling database. I don't care who sees it. I started to set up my database and ran into problems immediately. In my linked table, you couldn't search on the field that was a reference to an entry in another table. Okay, the quick workaround was to ditch the multiple table approach. Other problems were the annoying habit of views wanting to be saved whenever I made a change. The really annoying part was how slow everything was. Editing my data was painstakingly slow. Plus, it looked like scripting support was minimal. After spending way too many hours with DabbleDB, I decided to ditch it. I told myself that all that time wasn't wasted because I got to think more deeply about how I wanted to structure my data and interact with it.

Next, I tried ZoHo creator. This looked more promising. The restriction on the free account limited me to three applications, and only two users. That wasn't too bad. The other restriction that concerned me was that I was limited to 1000 records. That wasn't so good considering that I wanted to create records for 2000 words. Oh, well. Not to worry, I could maintain just the active words and keep under the 1000 record limit.

Zoho Creator had its own learning curve. Not too bad, but enough that I had to throw several hours at it to figure out how it worked. Plus, the more I delved into Zoho Creator, the more I was impressed with its functionality. It had great support for date data types. String datatypes were no problem. The plethora of other types of fields were great too - drop down boxes, radio boxes, combo boxes, check boxes, etc. The Deluge scripting language seemed really robust too. Then I found HTML Views where I could build my own views using HTML. It all looked awesome.

However, there were to main problems niggling at the back of my head: the safety of my data, and the stability of the program.

First I was worried about the safety of my data. I edited the properties of one field by changing some of the possible values, and the data for all of those fields got toasted. Okay, my bad. I need to be more careful about editing the definition of a field with data. However, I also am generally uncomfortable with how good Zoho's backup systems and availability are given that I'd never heard of them before. I trust Yahoo and Google with my data, but some possibly fly-by-night company? I don't know. It didn't help that another online database company (Coghead) had recently closed shop.

Then I started running into problems with the script editor in Zoho Creator. I'm used to editors like in GameMaker and MicrosoftWord. I can type freeform script and lookup functions and syntax. I can save whenever I want and deal with errors later. Zoho creator didn't have very good documentation, so I relied on its script builder that formatted stuff with the correct syntax and offered nice pick lists. However, it also drove me nuts. It wouldn't save unless everything was perfect - it would just hang. I'd try to drag and drop elements around and they wouldn't go where I wanted them. Sometimes they'd jump to some random place or the bottom of the page. I'd go to free-form mode to manually copy and paste, and then I'd leave some typo and the thing would freak out and refuse to save or load. I'd have to drop out of the entire application, loosing everything I'd done, and start from scratch. The editor was also incredibly slow. I thought that I could deal with it. After all, once the app was written I wouldn't have to mess with it again. I visited the forums and was pleased to see that it was fairly active. I searched for my issues and came up with nothing, so I decided to post them. I was pleased to get a quick reply.

Then I was editing one of my forms when Zoho creator decided to trash the better part of the form I had slaved over. Poof, it was gone! Okay, I can deal with this. It should be easier to recreate because I know which scripting elements to use and in which order. I started rebuilding. I saved religiously. The problems with the script editor kept haunting me. It wouldn't let me save a change because it insisted that a variable wasn't set, even though it was, just in a different block of code. I had to go back to free-form scripting mode and make the changes and pray that the editor wouldn't choke on it.

I'm taking a break to blog my frustrations. Zoho creator seems like a fabulous product. It looks like it has awesome functionality. I even got some of that awesome functionality to work before the lousy editor screwed it up. I've used Zoho creator for the past week to manage my spelling, and have a week's worth of data caught up in it that I'm afraid of loosing. It has all the elements that I need to create all the aspects of the app that I want. However, Zoho Creator just isn't stable enough and forgiving enough.

I'm also probably being a bit mean here, but I did a bit of poking on the Zoho Creator web site and their documentation system leaves much to be desired. Their main development seems to be in India. (Back when I was a gainfully employed member of society I watched wave after wave of layoffs in the local office while developers and q&a were shifted to India. Some excellent co-workers had to train their counterparts in India, knowing full well that they would probably be laid off after the training was complete.) Zoho's web site also has some employee blogs that haven't been used in years. While I love the functionality and the dream that the product offers, in my short experience it doesn't live up to that dream.

I'm currently looking into how to export my data so that I can reuse it somehow in some other application. I don't know where to go next.

Did you really read all of this rant? If so, I'm sorry.

I love the flexibility of homeschooling

I love the flexibility of homeschooling.

Sparkle has her first recital tomorrow. (Oops, I'm not supposed to call it a recital. Let's call it a ballet performance.) Tonight was her dress rehearsal, which started before our normal supper time, and continued past her normal bedtime. We also had our monthly homeschool group meeting in the morning, after which the group usually re-convenes at a park for the kids to play. Perfect. The girls ran around the park and Sparkle got tired enough to nap, and then she was refreshed for the rehearsal. In a normal school environment, Sparkle wouldn't have been able to exercise in the park so much. She wouldn't have been able to take a mid day nap. She would have been exhausted from school even before being rushed through supper and then wouldn't have had been rested at the rehearsal.

Meanwhile, a lot of schools in the area are closing due to scares about Swine Flu. In fact, the church where our homeschool group meets just announced that it was closing the building we had used only this morning, due to fears about Swine Flu. The Chinese school that I attend also sent out an email asking students whose regular schools are affected by Swine Flu closings don't come to Chinese school. When you couple these school closings with the school closings at the beginning of the school year due to Ike, some of these unfortunate kids are loosing a month or more of school, and their parents have to scramble to figure out what to do with them.

Thanks to homeschooling, we don't have to miss any school. Heck, even today with park play, nap, and rehearsal, Sparkle did more reading, writing, and math than in a typical kindergarten class. Reading - after coming home from the park, she read a book to settle herself before the nap, then when she was waking up I read a book to her. Writing - she correctly wrote five sentences from dictation. (It would have been three, but we had some attitude problems.) Math - we did a lot of number and calendar work as well as word problems by following her lead talking about her ballet rehearsals and the upcoming performances (number of rehearsals, when they were, number of times she would wear her costume vs. number of times she'd be in front of an audience, etc.)

Oh, and Sparkle was both excited and anxious about the ballet. She both wanted and dreaded getting makeup and being on a real stage. She'd alternate between asking why she had to have makeup and begging me to put it on right away.

When it was finally their turn, Sparkle and the other girls in her group were the typical uber cute, clueless five year old dancers on stage. They must have had someone back stage with them coaching them on when to get out on the stage at the right time, but the rest was adorable chaos. Their instructor, who watched all the dancers and frequently shook her head and gave strict corrections to the older girls, watched Sparkle and the others with a broad helpless grin. Unable to watch the rest of their performance, she turned around and laughed "I just love them. Don't you just love them?" It's the only sensible thing to do.

Journals

How can kids go from screaming at each other to best friends so fast?

Sparkle and Glitter are looking over Glitter's journal. Sparkle is asking Glitter about all the scribbles and Glitter is explaining them to her. A streak of red becomes a fire. There are pictures of the mom and dad. Another page becomes people jumping around. I don't see any of it, but somehow Sparkle is able to make sense out of the random marks and Glitter is proud to show off.


Then, when they get to the end of Glitter's journal, Sparkle asks Glitter if she wants to look at her journal. So, they put away Glitter's journal and bring out Sparkle's.