Griffiths, Richard
R.Griffiths at bury.gov.uk
Mon Sep 13 09:10:52 CDT 2004
Hi Thanks for all your replies (keep'em coming). A few months ago I was leaning towards keeping it to VB6 but since then I have started using VB.net...and after initial head scratching it appears to be not that difficult ie learning curve less steep that I first thought (just talking usual VB/VBA application development - not the whole .net thingy). It reminds me a little like when I started using VB6 after many years of MS Access (I thought VB6 was going to be this daunting big programming thing - but its (VB6) as simple (or otherwise) as Access/VBA. I think VB.net will be the same (there is tons of free code to help you on the net). I am also leaning towards .net as when you've programmed for many years I find that sometimes you hit saturation point i.e. you can't face writing another line of code - the one thing that can overcome this is new technology/languages etc. and this challenge refeshes the programming desire within - I find anyway. As I was unsure of the deployment issue I did do some testing this morning and copied dotnetfx.exe (redistributable .net framework) to a W98 machine and installed - no problems. Installed Data Access 2.7 - no problems. I then simply copied an A2K BE mdb over with Vb.net exe . Double-clicked the exe and pleasingly/surprisingly it loaded the form, connected the db and ran okay. (I know this is a limited one machine test). I'm still not sure which way to go (especially as the replies thus far lean away from VB.Net) but I shall welcome further replies. Many thanks Richard -----Original Message----- From: Jim Dettman [mailto:jimdettman at earthlink.net] Sent: Mon 13/09/2004 13:44 To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Cc: Subject: RE: [AccessD] MS Access to VB6 or VB.net Richard, I think rather then the worrying about the front end, you should be considering the BE and the technology behind it. However without knowing a lot more about your app, it's hard to say if that's critical or not. Also, you didn't mention why you were considering moving from developing the FE in Access itself. As for VB.Net, I've been ignoring it for the most part for some of the same reasons you outline (distribution) plus the fact that it has a large learning curve. I can't see spending the time on that when I already have tools at my disposal that do the job fine. And I'm not the only one. Overall it seems that .Net has been poorly received by the development community. Most developers I know are happy (for the most part) with what they already have/know. Of course a lot depends on the types of apps you develop and the end users you target. I think most of us on this list are on the smaller end of the scale developing typical business type apps for 50 concurrent users or less. How about a quick un-scientific poll? 1. Do you currently develop in .Net (you know it and use it on a regular basis) 2. Are you learning .Net for a project (your just starting out with it and have done a small project or two). 3. Don't know anything about it, but are interested in it. 4. Could care less. I'm firmly at #4 for the moment. Jim Dettman (315) 699-3443 jimdettman at earthlink.net -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Griffiths, Richard Sent: Monday, September 13, 2004 5:20 AM To: AccessD at databaseadvisors.com Subject: [AccessD] MS Access to VB6 or VB.net Hi Group After advice and thoughts. I have a piece of commercial software (library s/ware for schools) written with A97 FE and BE. I am about to rewrite and can't decide over VB6 FE/A2K(DAO) BE or VB.net FE / A2K BE.(reason for change to VB as opposed to MS Access is that the VB footprint will be smaller 1-2mb [easier to email/download and manage than my 12-13 mb Access FE]). On one hand the VB6 route will be quicker to develop (no learning curve) and I think to deploy. On the other hand VB.Net is the future (most likely!!)(and learning and developing in this will be more interesting and will spur me on) but I am concerned (mainly) about deployment as my users are not very IT literate and their pc's (at this time) are not up-to-date (some W95 many W98 32-64mb ram - I know .net is no go on W95). So deployment of .net requires not only the framework but they need minimal Data Access 2.7, IE 5.01, Windows installer etc also installed. But 6-12 months down the line I don't want to be in the posistion that having used VB6 to then consider rewriting in Vb.net. What I can't gauge here is how significant these issues are (and any other issues). So what I am hoping to get here is how you would approach this conundrum - tried and tested VB6 or new VB.net? Thanks Richard -- _______________________________________________ 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