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mbreesetoday at 8:42 PM5 repliesview on HN

Is there a place these days for interfaces like this? I’m thinking about self contained applications like HyperCard stacks, but also FileMaker databases or even Access databases where we had interfaces linked to a database all as a self contained application. These tools with scripting languages powered a ton of small business applications. I know a lab I worked with was still using FileMaker databases up until a few years ago. These were user developed applications, done by people who may have been a bit technical, but who didn’t to know a full programming language.

If you’re a small shop and have a need for a little database, what do you use? Is there a default now? Notion?


Replies

Exoristostoday at 10:23 PM

SaaS seems to have largely replaced them. And, needless to say, now LLM.

jcynixtoday at 9:32 PM

I've seen people (non IT) do similar things (i.e. develop small applications) with Excel.

I created my bibliographic database with HyperCard. And I still miss it. HyperCard's attractiveness was the easy UI creation. FileMaker wasn't bad, but a bit more limited UI wise. And sqlite, while a phantastic DB misses the easy UI.

pjmlptoday at 9:26 PM

Why past tense, Filemaker and Access are still being sold.

A solution would probably be Airtable.

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chrisweeklytoday at 8:53 PM

SQLite seems to me like it fits the bill.

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NegativeLatencytoday at 9:46 PM

an llm coding agent?