Drew Wutka
DWUTKA at Marlow.com
Wed Jan 12 15:06:10 CST 2011
Exactly my point. It did it's job, and it did it well. But then again, it only produced the affect, not the actual machine, for that, you would have to use a machine shop... ;) I hope my post wasn't taken as Access is a toy. I did say Access has that perception about it, which it does, and Microsoft keeps pushing it as a toy, or treating it like one, but it can do its job quite well. Drew -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gustav Brock Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 3:01 PM To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT:Old Dog, New Tricks - Ferrari's ? Hi Drew et all How to assemble 110 gears - including differential gears - to a meaningful machine - in LEGO: Lego Antikythera Mechanism http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLPVCJjTNgk Watch in HD and full screen. /gustav >>> DWUTKA at marlow.com 12-01-2011 21:27 >>> Actually Mark, I think a better analogy would be to say that Access is like Legos, and .Net (or any other actual true programming language) is like a full blown machine shop. First, inexperienced users can use legos, but what they make will usually be a disaster (plus they tend to put the little pieces in their mouth and choke on them), where as an inexperienced user would give up in a machine shop, or just be too scared to walk in it. Experienced and skilled pros can make works of art with both legos and in a full blown machine shop.... however the skill sets do vary between the two. Second, with legos, a lot of the 'tricky' parts are already molded and ready to go (like Jet, DAO, Reports, etc). With legos, you don't have to build a tree out of tiny pieces, you can just use the preformed tree pieces, yet you can still build the tree from scratch if you want too (bound/unbound). With a machine shop, you have lots of tools, tools that allow you to build pretty much anything you want, but you don't have a lot of 'pre-formed' pieces, so you have to build them from scratch. (Of course, like a good machine shop, when you build a custom tool, you can easily use that same tool in another project, so you really only have to do something super useful once, then re-use it). Third, legos aren't suited for all environments. If you need to build something that'll hold up to 300 degree temps (or run across a VPN connection), legos might work, but probably not too well. To improve them, you have to go outside of the lego world, and use some special coating (scrap jet for a SQL Server backend). With a machine shop, you can build the tool/project to suit the environment. Fourth, let's face it, how many engineers or mechanics didn't bite their teeth on legos as a kid. They make a great starting point for people new to the field. Where as walking into a machine shop on the first day of kindergarten.... you'll hurt yourself. Fifth, legos have a public perception of being a toy, but people who are damn good at what they do have created wondrous creations using that 'toy' that wouldn't have been the same using any other medium, and fulfill their purpose to the Tee. Along these same lines, there are people skilled enough to use a machine shop, who probably laugh at someone using legos, but who still produce garbage, that won't hold up to a skilled lego project. Sixth, the Legos Group continues to sell and market their product to people they expect to use it as a toy (nice little dig to M$ ;)). Seventh, and most importantly, the only thing legos and a machine shop have in common is that they can produce things. Neither of them are designed for all projects. The true skill is to know what project should use which environment. Drew -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Mark Simms Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 11:10 AM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT:Old Dog, New Tricks - Ferrari's ? While there is no question that John needed dot-net due to a multi-threading requirement, before making the commitment, you've got to ask yourself: How many Ferrari's are you asked to build ? Dot-net is a Ferrari-building tool. It takes a lot longer to build anything with a complex toolset. I think Access builds Chevy's very fine and very quickly. But if you need to build a Ferrari, by all means move up to dot-net. Super-fancy GUI ? Access can't do it. Multi-threading ? Access can't do it. Note: since no one understands the software business, so I'm stuck on using these analogies to explain things to end-users. 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