Dan Waters
dwaters at usinternet.com
Fri Sep 22 06:52:09 CDT 2006
Hi Charlotte, Thanks for this write-up! Turns out I do have the O'Reilly book. I bought it to try to learn and see if, for me, it's the right thing to do. I'll have to look up to see what n-tiered design is. If I don't need it, then you just saved me a huge amount of time! Thanks, Dan Waters -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Charlotte Foust Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 6:41 PM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re: [AccessD] Switching to VB.net The hills are alive with references. One that still amuses me is the O'Reilly book, "Visual Basic 2005 in a Nutshell", which totals 746 pages and is 1.5 inches thick! That's one heck of a big nutshell! Rick Dobson's book, Programming Visual Basic .Net for Access Databases", at least starts from familiar territory. There are also some good books in the Microsoft .Net Development Series, including "Data Binding with Windows Forms 2.0" and "Windows Forms 2.0 Programming". Be prepared to be confused at first. If you don't understand classes, you'd better learn fast because *everything* in .Net is a class, even a string is a class instance. And if you haven't worked with ADO, you might as well bite the bullet and get ready for ADO.Net. I found it much easier to move to ADO.Net having worked extensively with ADO in addition to DAO. You'll become familiar with XML whether you want to or not because that's where you store stuff that used to go into the registry in Access apps. That means you have to learn to read and write it using the appropriate tools from .Net. The most difficult part of .Net is that you can do so much, in so many possible ways, that you wander around in confusion looking for someone to lead you out of the wilderness. I think this is one language where some training is essential, although finding the right level of training can be a chore too. The AppDev series on .Net is pretty good and takes you through the basics quite well. Rick Dobson's books are good but I haven't been at all impressed with him dvds, which strike me as extremely home-made. Rick is a nice guy and he knows his topic but the videos tend to wander. You'll probably eventually wind up using 3rd party controls, although Microsoft is trying to cover those bases more with every release. The next framework is slated to have a new UI in place of Microsoft Forms (or maybe above or below MS Forms, I haven't figured that out yet) and some nifty developer tools. If you want to do effective database design in .Net, you have to learn not only relational theory but also n-tiered design, since it's pretty pointless to build a .Net app in only one or two tiers. All in all, it's a wild ride, but fun! Charlotte -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Dan Waters Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 2:07 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] Switching to VB.net Or - if you could point to a reference? (no pun intended!) Thanks! Dan Waters -----Original Message----- Subject: Re: [AccessD] Switching to VB.net Ye Gads! The best way is to get a good team leader who knows the thing! I'm the veriest novice, but it's my bread and butter. Let me give it some thought. Charlotte -----Original Message----- Subject: Re: [AccessD] Switching to VB.net OK Charlotte! Since you have admitted switching to VB.net and are extolling the virtues of said product, I want to ask you to do something! For those of us who are 'switching lurkers', we could use a write up on how to go about this Big Switch! Any possibility? Dan Waters -----Original Message----- Subject: Re: [AccessD] pretty quiet out there Naw, it's just that we're all switching to VB.Net and don't want to admit it. LOL Charlotte -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com