[AccessD] The future of Access, .NET and SQL

Jim Dettman jimdettman at earthlink.net
Tue Sep 27 14:42:54 CDT 2005


John,

 <<Get out now while the gettin's good.>>

 Same can be said for VFP as well.  Versions 6,7,8, and 9 all had major
enhancements.  "Version 10" seems to be nothing more then a bunch of small
add-ons and is rumored to be the last release for VFP.

  It's .Net, .Net, .Net and nothing but.

Jim.

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of John W. Colby
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 3:16 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] The future of Access, .NET and SQL


I saw a demo of the new beta for Office and it is, shall we say, distinctly
developer UNFRIENDLY.  Actively, in-your-face unfriendly.  It is SUPPOSED to
be "power user" friendly, although it didn't look particularly friendly at
all.  A STEEP learning curve because the user interface is just entirely and
completely different.

Toolbars are gone (kind of replaced by "ribbons"), menus mostly just cause
"ribbons" to appear, which take up a lot of screen real estate and are the
replacement for toolbars.  Code tabs GONE.  You are supposed to do things
with macros again.  Which are the same old macros of old, no error handlers
etc.  Code modules do exist, and can be used, but I never did see how you
got at them.  Code is just too much for POWER USERS and users are the focus.

Get out now while the gettin's good.

My personal feeling is that Office as we know it will be around until MS
pulls the plug on support, just because of the natural resistance of
companies to change what works.  The new Office is just not supposed to be a
dev environment any more.  Too many security problems, plus it always was a
clunky mish mash of old technology that MS is trying desperately to retire.

Just my opinion.

I will continue to support my clients up through 2003, but beyond that my
services (in Office) are actively discouraged by MS and so I will happily
move on.  We always were second class citizens, I might as well move on to
VB.Net and keep my second class citizenship in good standing.  Plus with the
emphasis on the web, distributed this-n-that and data everywhere, ASP.Net,
VB.net and SQL Server is a powerful environment.  IMHO, nothing will ever
again match the RAD capabilities of Access for database (specifically)
application development but once I get up to speed in DotNet I will be in
the same league (in some ways) and waaaaaay more capable in many others, so
it will be a good tradeoff.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com

Contribute your unused CPU cycles to a good cause:
http://folding.stanford.edu/

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Martin Reid
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 2:55 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] The future of Access, .NET and SQL


All I can pass on is what I hear and pick up from the web. Personally I
think they will make a hugh push towards SharePoint technologies with the
new release of Office and that seems to be the direction they are heading in

talks we have been having with them re projects in the University. On the
Access front I think MS focus is on .NET and XML as data the data stores but

thats my own opinion. RE JET I did hear sometime ago that it would no londer

be developed but as John says I am sure it wil remain about. I did also hear

the new engine woudl work with JET.

I do know that when the Access dev team reps where in the UK they didnt want

to meet developers but wanted to meet with users. Now that I do know and
have an email about somewhere that says that. Maybe that sort of sums up
what they think.


Martin


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