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by Ajedi32 1776 days ago
I've had similar thoughts in the past. Databases are very machine-friendly, but too static and inflexible to match the usability of spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are extremely user-friendly, but too inconsistent and unconstrained to be efficient for programmatic access.

It seems like there should be a way to combine the two. Maybe a minimal set of optional constraints (like a separation between data and code) like you proposed would be a good starting point. Make tables a first-class citizen backed by an embedded SQLite database (or something similar); let users write real SQL to query tables in formulas, maybe update the file format a bit to make it easier for programs to parse and access concurrently. Could be an interesting project...
3 comments
_jal 1776 days ago
Honestly, what's missing is a GUI builder for Postgres that non-programmers can use.

Others have mentioned Filemaker and Access, and I think that's exactly right - non-programmers can understand datatypes, that's not the issue. The issue is a UI they can use and (more importantly) iterate on themselves.

One of the major strengths of spreadsheets is "touchability" - your stuff is right there. Psql is the opposite - nothing is visible without the right incantation, and non-programmers can't do much about that.

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andrew_jef 1776 days ago
I've read that nocodb is aiming to solve the issue that you mentioned

https://www.nocodb.com/

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jandrese 1776 days ago
Isn't this what FileMaker Pro is all about?
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reidjs 1776 days ago
Yep! I personally like Airtable as well, slightly better UX (but expensive for large teams)
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