James Moss
jmoss111 at bellsouth.net
Wed Dec 1 17:35:32 CST 2004
Alan,
MS was giving away copies of vs.net if you watched a few webcasts. Also,
vb.net standard came bundled with my copy of VSOT. You can find some
bargains on eBay occasionally like Visual Studio.net Enterprise Architect
for < $100.
You might want to look at Web Matrix from Microsoft which is free, at
www.asp.net .
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Lawhon, Alan C
Contractor/Morgan Research
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 4:42 PM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: [AccessD] Please Advise: Should I Buy "Microsoft Visual Basic
.NETStandard 2003 ..."
... or just try to learn what I can from [VB.Net] books alone?
Well, the "future" has finally arrived ... Here at work we have a fairly
significant environmental database application that we have been using (and
"tweaking") for the past five years. The application, called "EDS" - which
stands for "Environmental Document System" - started off as a very simple
Access 97 application. Over time, as the capabilities of the system grew
and the need to provide client/server access was realized, the front end
migrated to Access 2000 and the back end [eventually] migrated to SQL Server
2000 - which is where we are now.
Well, you know how customers are ... they are always wanting changes (or
"something new") and that is the case with our customer. EDS is becoming
increasingly popular with users outside our immediate organization. So
popular, in fact, that our Government manager has requested that we "web
enable" EDS and make EDS accessible from a web browser - such as Internet
Explorer. Gulp !! It didn't take too much web surfing (and research) to
realize that "web enabling" EDS is going to be thirsty work ...
The EDS database consists of multiple form and report objects with lots of
event driven Visual Basic code. Most of the VBA code is attached to command
buttons as Click_Event() procedures. (There's a lot of logic testing and
conditional execution for business rule implementation within the VBA code.)
The research I have done (so far) indicates that I face a steep learning
curve when it comes to web programming. I'm already looking at "HTML & XML
for Beginners" (book) by Michael Morrison and I have just ordered a couple
of books on databases and VB.Net programming. (I have ordered "Beginning
VB.Net Databases" by Thearon Willis and "Programming Microsoft Visual Basic
.NET for Microsoft Access Databases" by Rick Dobson.) I figure these two
books will give me plenty to chew on - at least initially.
The senior programmer and I have been looking on the internet for the proper
.NET development tool. Right now it looks like we will be asking our
customer to pay for a full-up version of Visual Studio 2003 - or whatever
contains the full "Professional" version of MS Visual Basic .NET. While
researching the various developer tool alternatives for VB.NET programming,
I came across this page at Amazon.com's web site:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000089GKW/002-1179299-3348025
The "Standard" edition of Microsoft VB.Net [2003] appeals to me for two
reasons: It's (relatively) affordable - less than a hundred dollars - and
the "Standard" edition might be a good "learning tool" for playing around
with VB.Net on my home computer. However, the "Standard" edition appears to
have a number of ... uhm ... limitations. (Look at Frank Spillman's
"Roadblocks, Roadblocks" reader review in the above link.)
I would be grateful if some of the folks on this list who have actually done
some web programming (especially with VB.Net) could offer advice and
opinions with respect to the "Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Standard 2003"
[web] development tool. Basically, I'm wondering if the "Standard" edition
has enough capability to serve as a useful "learning tool" - or is it so
"crippled" that I would be better off simply reading .NET books?
Thanks in advance ...
Alan C. Lawhon - (Very Green) Web Programmer
--
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