pgwk > writes:

> [...Microsoft...]
>
> Whatever solution members of our group adopts shoudl be very
> simple. Smartphones have a long way to go in terms of display, true
> compatibility and even data entry. Relastional DBMS would be a
> complete overkill -- we are not talking about hundreds of thousands
> of records, with complex query needs and conditional Boolean search
> features,

Not unless there's more than one user/taster. Do you want to
foreclose that possibility at the outset?

> plus why would anyone need to normalize the data as tables?

One reason is that you might want to be sure when you're talking about
the same thing and when you're talking about different things. For a
concrete example, there's the exchange I had with LurfysMa about
purchases (or lots) vs. types of tea.

> [...]
>
> A tea DB is basically just a simple set of records, so all that is
> needed is a simple data entry mechanism, search capability and
> display output. The only non-simple issue is coming up with a list
> of the fields and keys you want to use.

Well, that's one way to do it, and a valid way, but hardly the only
one. There are lots of free-form blogs featuring people's tasting
notes out there. I read some of them with pleasure and profit. But I
fear that a quick-n-dirty "database" for tea tasting would suck all
the flavorsome virtues out of the blog approach without much
offsetting usefulness.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.glencove.com/95nworkTCPIP.html#c5