OODB or RDB for checkbook/budget program?

[homer70]

Hi,
I wrote myself an Access db several years ago to do some things for my checkbook and budgeting and I've really enjoyed it ever since. Lately I've been thinking about writing it as a stand alone program so I could let my family and friends use too (I don't want it to be Access dependent because I don't want to have to troubleshoot and support it on different versions of Access or MDAC).
Anyway, recently I took a class on OO programming logic and a C++ class, and as I was thinking of how to design it, I was thinking in terms of objects. For instance, a transaction would be an object with attributes like a date, amount, etc. But then I realized that designing it this way seems to be fundamentally different from the way I did it originally with Access. So it looks like the first big decision I have to make is to decide whether to use object oriented db design or relational db design. Is this true, and if yes, which way would be better to go for a checkbook/budgeting app?
Thanks for your help.

 

[Thargy]

homer,

I would go relational every time, for the simple reason that I know of no object database worthy of the name.

Just because OO is flavour of the month right now, doesn't make it the correct approach to adopt. If you already have successful table structures etc. in access, why not migrate to a free for personal use database, such as oracle, mysql or (I believe) sql server?

If you want this as an OO programming exercise, then obviously relational is not for you.

Regards

T

 

[homer70]

I see what you mean. From what I've gathered I can have an OO front-end and an RDB back-end. Is that true?

 

[Thargy]

true,

but in the case of Oracle (I can't speak from knowledge about any others) you can use an object relational mapper, such as Vanatec. However, for anything other than a handful of users, the performance will be dire.

ORM's are used to overcome "the impedance mismatch" between the OO and relational worlds, with varying degrees of success.

Regards

T

 

[BNPMike]

Rails uses an Object Relational approach but I think it's the Kings New Clothes. I just don't see the point, especially if you're used to data-oriented development.

Try SQLite which is a passive database like Access Jet.

 

[homer70]

What about SQLite's limitation to only the basic types, NULL, INTEGER, FLOAT, TEXT and BLOB? Is this a problem?

 

[BNPMike]

SQLite is widely used -

http://www.sqlite.org/mostdeployed.html

- so I doubt this is a problem. Incidentally add REAL to your list.

 

[homer70]

Gotcha.
Thanks for the help everybody!