[AccessD] Old Dog, New Tricks / To Visual Studio or Not

[John W. Colby]

I second the C# mantra.  I did some extensive reading back when I was 
making that decision.  Under the covers, both languages have almost the 
exact same abilities, but there are a few small differences.  Each has a 
few niggling advantages and disadvantages. In the Windows environment, 
they both call down into the .Net libraries, and both languages are just 
thin layers that translate the "english language" programing (high 
level) stuff into calls down into the library

The bottom line is that C# is the more desired language, and if you go 
to other platforms, then C++ will be almost second nature.

The biggest challenge (IMHO) in learning to program in .Net is that 
pretty much everything is a class.  You don't have to use it, but 
inheritance is widely available.  Threading, raising and sinking 
interrupts, reflection, delegates etc are all things that the average 
VBA programmer doesn't even know exist (and don't in VBA). But you can 
start slow and then learn those things later.

John W. Colby

On 3/6/2015 12:31 PM, David McAfee wrote:
> If you've used VBA. the jump to VB.net isn't that bad, but I would strongly
> recommend against that and jumping straight into C# if time allows it.
> If you've programmed in C (or one of its dialects in the past, C# should be
> a little easier for you to pick up).
>
> I jumped into VB.Net first, and really wish I would have just spent the
> time (that I didn't have) learning C# right away.
>
> Visual Studio is way more powerful and easier to deploy as most computers
> should have the correct run time already installed (free deployment).
>
> It does take longer to develop stuff (IMO) in visual studio than it does in
> Access, but it's not that bad.
>
> I take it that you would still be creating WinForms and not Webpage front
> ends?
>
> I posted some code VB.Net code the other day under the thread titled
> "Automatic Update Function".
>
> I can post the same code in C# to show you how similar/different they are
> to each other.
>
> D
>
> On Fri, Mar 6, 2015 at 4:50 AM, Brad Marks <bradm at blackforestltd.com> wrote:
>
>> All,
>>
>> I have developed applications since 1975 with my first 33 years in the
>> mainframe realm (IBM, MVS, COBOL, DB2, Easytrieve, BAL, RPG, etc.)  I am
>> now semi-retired and work part-time for a small manufacturing firm (50
>> people).  Over the past few years, I have developed a number of
>> applications with Microsoft Access.  About five years ago,
>> I suggested to the management team that we look at using Visual Studio.
>> This suggestion was voted down due to the time and expense of introducing
>> Visual Studio at that point in time.
>>
>> The company ownership and leadership has changed over the past few
>> months.  I believe that there might now be a willingness to consider the
>> introduction of Visual Studio.  I have briefly read about “Visual Studio
>> 2013 Community” and I have started to watch some Visual Studio training
>> videos on YouTube.
>>
>> It appears that I can experiment with “Visual Studio 2013 Community” with
>> no financial investment, just an investment of time.
>>
>> However, because the small firm that I work for has annual revenues
>> greater than one million, I would not be able to build and deploy
>> applications with “Visual Studio 2013 Community” at work.  We would need to
>> buy the professional version.
>>
>> I have some questions about moving from Access/VBA to Visual Studio (or
>> using VS to supplement existing Access application).
>>
>> How steep is the learning curve?
>>
>> How long did it take others to get up to speed with VS?
>>
>> When I develop applications with Microsoft Access, I use a “full” version
>> of Access.  The deployment is made to about 25 PCs that have Microsoft
>> Access “Runtime” (free).
>> I assume that if an application is developed with Visual Studio, it can be
>> deployed to other PCs for free.  Is this true?
>>
>> I am going to be 63 years old in September.  I really like to learn new
>> things and experiment.  I have tons of free time to watch training videos
>> and play with the software.  However, at my age and with possible cognitive
>> disabilities from so many years of working with COBOL, I am not sure that I
>> want to take on something as large as Visual Studio.  I know that this is
>> really a personal decision, but I would appreciate any insights about an
>> old dog’s ability to learn new tricks.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> PS.  Currently all of my development work is for in-house desktop PC
>> applications.  Our website is outsourced to a contractor.  There has been
>> some discussion about bringing the maintenance of this website in-house.
>> This would obviously change the picture.
>>
>> --
>> AccessD mailing list
>> AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
>> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
>> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
>>