[AccessD] Future of Access?

Martin Reid mwp.reid at qub.ac.uk
Wed Jul 16 06:53:49 CDT 2003


Our lot do Java and the database module uses Cobol. By and large DBs are
ignored.

Martin

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Wortz, Charles
Sent: 16 July 2003 07:51
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Future of Access?

Jarad,

You don't say where your local university is located, but obviously not
near a technology hot spot.

At the local university across the street from me, the beginning
language for CS students is Java and most incoming freshmen that plan on
majoring in CS already know it.  Even in the current downturn, trying to
hire graduates from their CS program for a position that does not use
OOT is next to impossible.  What we can find are graduates from other
programs that have minored in CS or MIS and willing to take any position
whether or not OOT.

Charles Wortz 
Software Development Division 
Texas Education Agency 
1701 N. Congress Ave 
Austin, TX 78701-1494 
512-463-9493 
CWortz at tea.state.tx.us 
-----Original Message-----
From: Huffman, Jarad B. [mailto:jbhuffman at mdh.org] 
Sent: Wednesday 2003 Jul 16 09:26
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Future of Access?


two of the requirements for a BS in computer science at my local
university are 2 semesters of COBOL.  It's still widely used, sadly.


Jarad Huffman 
-----Original Message-----
From: Hale, Jim [mailto:jim.hale at fleetpride.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 9:18 AM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Future of Access?


<who is  going to be able to maintain his software if it 
<is not converted every few years to a technology that people are able 
and willing to work with?> 
My son just graduated from college with a business degree in MIS. He has
had the GOOD fortune to land a great job with a major insurance company.
The catch? He has been assigned to the mainframe maintenance team. He is
attempting to learn COBOL, JCL and easytrieve (?) to service apps that
might have been cutting edge 30 yrs ago. For someone whose total
experience is with object oriented programming (he is a pretty good web
designer) he is going nuts! Even the manuals are out of print <g>.
Jim Hale 
-----Original Message----- 
From: Wortz, Charles [mailto:CWortz at tea.state.tx.us] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 8:52 AM 
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving 
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Future of Access? 


Arthur, 
But in 30 years will the kids know how to use pencils? <grin> 
That is one of the reasons I told Chris to expect some conversions of 
his software.  Unless he is planning on staying on the project for the 
next 30 years, who is  going to be able to maintain his software if it 
is not converted every few years to a technology that people are able 
and willing to work with? 
The software does not wear out, but finding people that understand old 
software and are willing to maintain it is very expensive.  The dBase 
applications I wrote 10-15 years ago probably still would work fine, but

how are you going to find anybody that understands the dBase file 
structure and is willing to work with it?  They would have to double my 
salary if they wanted me to stick with dBase.  Thus, they all have been 
converted to Access since that is a technology that has an large labor 
pool of developers and maintainers. 
Charles Wortz 
Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com 
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