Tom Adams
tomadatn at bellsouth.net
Fri Mar 21 11:23:25 CST 2003
To semi-quote Mark Twain ... "When I was 18 my dad was the dumbest person on the face of the earth. When I was 22 he had made considerable progress." ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Lawrence (AccessD)" <accessd at shaw.ca> To: <accessd at databaseadvisors.com> Sent: Friday, March 21, 2003 11:10 AM Subject: RE: [AccessD] Tech books ... > Jim: > > Some solace...they do get better. At eighteen (it actually extended from > about twelve on) I was as dumb as a stump and at twenty-three she is now > working with me. > > HTH > Jim > > -----Original Message----- > From: accessd-admin at databaseadvisors.com > [mailto:accessd-admin at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Jim Hewson > Sent: Friday, March 21, 2003 6:54 AM > To: 'accessd at databaseadvisors.com' > Subject: RE: [AccessD] Tech books ... > > > > I concur with Tom on several points, I'd like to add a few. > > 1. Good coding examples would be very helpful. Simple examples are useful > only to give a rudimentary idea of what is being explained, but it doesn't > help when trying to implement a solution. > > 2. I have yet to find a book that explains treeviews. Arthur Fuller wrote > an article about it awhile back and it is the best I have seen. The last > book I bought didn't even discuss treeviews even though it's touted as a > "comprehensive reference" for Access with 1600 pages and 2 CDs! > > 3. If a CD is included make sure it works! The book I bought was supposed > to have samples of the code and example databases to put into practice what > was discussed by each chapter. Some of the examples didn't work or were not > included on the CD. I contacted the author, the publisher, and visited the > web site and still didn't get the correct files. > > Tom also mentioned his first born child and that "she's a teenager and > that's a punishment worse than death to inflict on anyone." My teenage > daughter just turned 18 - she seems to be getting worse! What makes her > think that a date on the calendar gives her wisdom? She seems to think I > get dumber every day! > > Oh well, this too shall pass. > > Jim > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Tom Adams [mailto:tomadatn at bellsouth.net] > Sent: Friday, March 21, 2003 8:25 AM > To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com > Subject: [AccessD] Tech books ... > > > To the whizzes that write books in this list. > > A recent post that said they learned better from examples than from reading > books brought up a point I've been meaning to make. I > know the publishers push you to include all Access user levels in your books > so more will sell. However that means that 80% of the > book is useless for moderate to advanced readers. > > There are two points I'd like to point out (neither of which has a chance of > making it). > 1. Have a few overly documented examples if you will - but include a bunch > of heavy duty > code for examples for the advanced programmers - with little or no > comments. The documented > examples in books are usually too simple to be very useful. Real code > will teach most > developers without the comments. > > 2. As there are millions of Excel and Access power users through developers > - and sometimes they > will be doing other apps - eg. Excel to Access, Excel to VB, Access to > VB and/or VB to Access, > Access to Sql Server and Sql Server to Jet - consider writing a From X > to Y Dictionary. Eg. > From Access to VB, From Jet to Sql Server, etc. > > I've moved into VB for the last 6 months and would have paid almost > anything for an Access to Vb > book. Eg. Combo Box. What a pain in VB. Can't tell you how long this > took me to figure out. > Makes me want to find one of the Access guys at Microsoft and give them > my first born child (I > know, I know - she's a teenager and that's a punishment worse than > death to inflict on anyone but > the thought is grateful.) > > I find that I know exactly what I want to do in Access but the > differences are often difficult to figure > out. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > _______________________________________________ > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > _______________________________________________ > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com