Hats off to you, and thanks very much for the response ... I agree with your "it isn't difficult" remark, and to be completely blunt, it is so 'not difficult' that I was sorta fishing for leads on stuff that is already done. This is a low-priority project that I am not getting paid for ... and this kind of work was old-hat for me over ten years ago ... so perhaps you can understand the question is less 'proof of concept' and more 'anybody got some spare code'.

As far as the "MSFT Access hell" all I can say is "I feel your pain (been there done that)" In fact, memories of this past anguish is partially what prompted my question.

It seems as though there is an "unmet market niche" out there ... small(ish) desktop database with the elegance and power that only a perlmonk could love, but with the pointy-clicky approachability that is the strong-suit of the (otherwise inelegant) MSFT Access category (which is what basic users need). Perhaps those two realms are just too distant, like finding someone who is fluent in both English and Mandarin Chinese?

So for now, it looks like a coin-toss between MySQL-Perl-Tk and (hold my nose) MSFT Access or Spreadsheet. Not to bash MSFT but their scripting and performance leaves a *lot* to be desired.

BTW I am suprised no one mentioned Open Office ... I'm still wondering if there's *anything* else out there