Has anyone out there tried developing Database solution for distribution in C#.NET? I just finished spending much time on a simple DB and am considering abandoning it and figure out FileMaker. Has anyone else had this experience? I guess my question is what is the merit of C#.NET over FileMaker for simple database program?

cost?

tigerdog:

Welcome to the Forums.

I'd say that C#.NET might allow you (after the learning curve) to do more than you could do with FileMaker. However, it is my experience that there is pretty much nothing that can't be built with FileMaker, and the costs are entirely manageable. The one caveat about FileMaker development has to do with truly massive systems where you're getting thousands of hits per minute. But then, I wouldn't use C#.NET for something like that either...

Also, if you go with FileMaker you'd have these Forums on your side - and the collective brainpower to be found at FMForums will shorten any development-time considerably...

-Stanley

I'll second Stanley...for a simple to moderately complex relational system, nothing beats Filemaker for rapid design, quick debugging, and general ease of use. Get version 8 Advanced, and you won't be sorry.

Steve

I will echo what Stanley posted as well. I work for a university and we are looking at Filemaker as a RAD tool to develop department-level databases. To try to accomplish the same thing with VB.NET or C#.NET using SQL just takes too much development time and resources.

Filemaker has really done a good job in the re-write for version 7/8. Since you mentioned that your project was a simple database I would definitely consider Filemaker 8.