Pivot Tables
In my opinion one of MS Access’s strongest features over FileMaker is its ability to perform piviot tables. Yes you can export your data from FileMaker into MS Excel and perform piviot tables but why? I want to make self contained desktop database applications.

Views/Queries
In real SQL RDBMSs (ORACLE, MS SQL Server, Sybase, MySQL) they are called Views. In reality it is a stored query that looks and behaves just like a table (for the most part). In MS Access its called a Query. I want to be able to create views from a subset of a table, or multiple tables. Use them to make other views, forms, or reports. I’ve been asking for this since I started using FileMaker Pro 7.0. That’s almost eight years.

Graphs
Sure there are third party plugins that one can buy to give them the ability to build grafts into their forms and reports. But if you ust spent $300 – $500 dollars for a desktop database system why should you have to go spend extra to have the ability to add graphs to your forms and reports? Again something that I’ve been asking for since version 7.0.

A True Programming Environment
In Oracle you have PL/SQL, in MS SQL and Sybase you have T-SQL, in MS Access they are called modules (or something like that). The ability to create stored procedures and functions, the raw power to make your database perform amazing things. I’ve simplified this a little but any database developer worth their weight in gold knows what I’m talking about. For everyone else there is the ability to create those little things FileMaker calls “scripts”, MS Access calls them Macros. I want an editor that uses syntax highlighting, where I can actually type in what I want the database to do. Not this find the macro on the left, double click, and fill-in-the blank crap. Its to limiting. While I’m at it how about some good tutorials on how to write plugins. I’ve yet to find one of those.

These are just a few things that I think would make FileMaker database products shine. Personally if I had been the person put in charge of their developers this is what I would have focused on vs. Bento. Bento isn’t even cross platform, but that’s another story for another time.