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

David McAfee davidmcafee at gmail.com
Fri Mar 6 12:25:51 CST 2015


Brad, as others have mentioned it is more common to find examples in C#.

Once you have the hang of C#, Java is very easy to learn (their syntax is
almost identical).

The only thing that I don't like about C# is the case sensitivity.

A bad habit of mine in VBA is to DIM a Variable such as
strSomeStupidNameLikeThis
 and then purposely type it in lower case later on in code to see if it
corrects itself to the
 propercase (redneck way of making sure I spelled it correctly).

Once again, VS handles this now with their intellisense. Still hate case
sensitivity though :P

D


On Fri, Mar 6, 2015 at 9:45 AM, Brad Marks <bradm at blackforestltd.com> wrote:

> David,
>
> Thanks for your reply and insights.
>
> I have not programmed in C before.  I have looked at C# a little bit.  I
> am curious as to why you recommend C# over VB.
>
> Currently our website (where people order stuff) is maintained by an
> outside contractor who uses Visual Studio.  If we stay with this contractor
> and do not move the maintenance of the website to "in-house", then any VS
> apps that I would build would be for Windows Desktop PCs only.
>
> However, if we do bring the website maintenance in-house, then I will need
> to also build web apps/pages.
>
> I am just trying to get a better handle on how complicated it would be to
> jump from Access to Visual Studio.
>
> I have had quite a bit of success building small applications with
> Access.  These apps seem to work nicely for the most part.  Every once in a
> while something flakey happens, but these occurrences are quite rare.
>
> Thanks again for your reply.
>
> Brad
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:
> accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of David McAfee
> Sent: Friday, March 06, 2015 11:31 AM
> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] Old Dog, New Tricks / To Visual Studio or Not
>
> 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.
> >
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> >
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