[AccessD] Alpha Five

That's my feeling exactly.  Ouch.  It looks like a nice system but ouch.

John W. Colby
Colby Consulting

Reality is what refuses to go away
when you do not believe in it

On 9/24/2012 6:37 AM, Gustav Brock wrote:
> Hi Arthur
>
> But at USD 349 + 499 + 499 => ouch!?
>
> /gustav
>
>
>>>> fuller.artful at gmail.com 24-09-12 11:56 >>>
> First of all, I haven't switched so much as opened a new avenue. I still do
> occasional work in Access, almost always against a SQL BE. But I am very
> much intrerested in Alpha Five, for these reasons:
>
> -- It offers a whole bunch of web-dev tools, and integrates with Ajax,
> Javascript, HTML5. ASP.NET, PHP and most anything I can think of.
> -- It hasn't abandoned the desktop model. At the start of any given
> project, you can choose to target Desktop or Web; Halfway into a project,
> you can change horses, as it were.
> -- There are abundant wizards to perform common tasks; the abundance and
> power of these make the Access wizards pale in comparison.
> -- The programming language, Xbasic, is similar to Access VBA but much more
> powerful. It also offers true object orientation.
> -- There is a collection of Feature Packs, available at extra cost, which
> provide additional capabilities. One such is dedicated to Graphics and
> Charting. There are many more, some created by Alpha and some by third
> parties. Alpha gets behind any creators of Feature Packs.
> -- There are dozens of example programs and video tutorials. In this
> respect, Alpha leaves Access in the dust.
> -- Whenevr I've asked for help, I have received a response the same day,
> and sometimes within the hour.
> -- Once you're ready to turn pro (I'm not there quite yet), Alpha offers a
> subscription plan that gives you not only updates but any new Feature Pack
> that may be introduced (not including the third party packs, of course,
> just the ones created by Alpha).
> -- Alpha Five has its own data-file format, but the company is well aware
> that it's going up against Access, and for that reason its next two back
> ends are Access and SQL Server. Beyond that, it can connect to virtually
> anything that supports ODBC. Further, you can change back-ends very easily.
>
> Not all is a bed of roses. There are a couple of down sides:
> -- To run a web app requires the Alpha application server, which means that
> you'll need an additional license enabling you to install the app server on
> your client's machine. The fee is well within reason, and it allows you to
> install the server on multiple client locations. But it is a cost to factor
> in. (The product includes a copy of the app server, so you can develop and
> test your app, but subsequent client installations require the license.)
> -- Despite the similarity of programming language, a lot of the event names
> are slightly different -- it's still pretty obvious which Alpha events
> correspond to which Access events, but it is a consideration.
> -- The largest problem is that the web-app server runs only on Windows. So
> other approaches (say, PHP and/or Javascript + jQuery) may be your only
> avenue, should you need your app to run on a Linux server.
>
> That's a quick summary of my impressions thus far. You can always visit the
> site (www.alphasoftware.com) and read more about it, and download a trial
> version if so inclined.
>
> On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 9:10 PM, Tony Septav <TSeptav at uniserve.com> wrote:
>
>> Hey Arthur
>>
>> Tell us why you have switched to  Alpha Five (or whatever it is called).
>> And
>> the benefits you see in using this program.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>>
>>
>> Tony Septav
>>
>> Nanaimo, BC
>>
>> Canada
>> --
>
> Arthur
>
>