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

Arthur Fuller artful at rogers.com
Wed Sep 28 22:20:32 CDT 2005


I have no complaint with that route. As you may know, my treasured partner
Peter Brawley and I have described such a path (c.f.
www.artfulsoftware.com). But that is neither here nor there. The big problem
with that path is that there is nothing even close to Access that delivers
Linux apps (except as described in said e-book, using Access and the links
to MySQL -- what I want is something like an ADP that hooks directly to
MySQL. It isn't there. We tried in the aforementioned book to illustrate a
way to get there, but it doesn't offer the same intimacy. We tried and
delivered as best we could. But it isn't the same as ADP and there isn't a
lot that we can do about it).

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Jim Lawrence
Sent: September 28, 2005 7:50 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] The future of Access, .NET and SQL

That is a rub; through the years I have become a master at Dbase and its
various iterations, Clipper, SuperBase, SmartWare, Advanced Revelation,
Pascal, Fortran, FoxBase/Pro, Angoss, Access, Clarion, C and a few other
miscellaneous environments.

...and another 3000 foot climb with dual pack-sacks and I keep thinking that
maybe I should have gone the open-source routine; Linux, Apache, MySQL and
PHP :-)  

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Ken Ismert
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 10:45 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] The future of Access, .NET and SQL

 
>>This translates into constantly changing software 
>>(and "new" technologies with STEEP learning curves) 
>>that never end - just so Mr. Gates can sell more 
>>software and generate more revenue and profits ...

That touches a nerve for me too, Alan. The Art of Programming, the gist
of it, has changed very little in decades. That alone takes years to
learn. We all must adapt to the normal pace of technological change -- a
given in this industry -- which means a constant burden of new things to
learn. 

But what I have trouble accepting is the planned obsolescence of
perfectly good languages and platforms. The idea of spending the time to
master the intricacies of a particular language, which could take the
better part of a decade, only to be told it is not viable by its maker,
really rubs me the wrong way. 

One thing is certain, though: in 30 years, Microsoft will have us
working in languages that will be completely unrecognizable to us today.
But there will still be Perl programmers. One shining advantage of
Open-Source, publicly-spec'd languages is that once they achieve
critical mass, you can be assured that your investment in learning will
not become obsolete.

One small hope: Microsoft has made the C# spec a public standard, which
could give it the longevity required to attract a long-term following.
It remains to be seen whether Microsoft will stick to the standard, or
try to subvert it, in the coming years.

-Ken

PS -- Have a look at Nemerle, a new .NET language that has a C#-like
syntax, but offers the convenience of type-inference, along with ML-like
functional constructs, and Lisp-like meta-programming. Still early in
development, but very intriguing...

http://nemerle.org/Main_Page
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