Dan Waters
dwaters at usinternet.com
Wed Sep 28 10:16:29 CDT 2005
Well . . . One of the distinct problems I've had gaining credibility as an Access developer is that Access is 'easy', and because it's 'easy' then unqualified people try to become developers and create havoc (and unplanned work for IT departments). So, if there is more of a distinction between people who use Access and people who develop in Access, then perhaps an Access developer may gain credibility because developing actual applications with Access (or other Office products) will be harder to do. We'll find out next year! Dan Waters -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of John W. Colby Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 2:16 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] The future of Access, .NET and SQL I saw a demo of the new beta for Office and it is, shall we say, distinctly developer UNFRIENDLY. Actively, in-your-face unfriendly. It is SUPPOSED to be "power user" friendly, although it didn't look particularly friendly at all. A STEEP learning curve because the user interface is just entirely and completely different. Toolbars are gone (kind of replaced by "ribbons"), menus mostly just cause "ribbons" to appear, which take up a lot of screen real estate and are the replacement for toolbars. Code tabs GONE. You are supposed to do things with macros again. Which are the same old macros of old, no error handlers etc. Code modules do exist, and can be used, but I never did see how you got at them. Code is just too much for POWER USERS and users are the focus. Get out now while the gettin's good. My personal feeling is that Office as we know it will be around until MS pulls the plug on support, just because of the natural resistance of companies to change what works. The new Office is just not supposed to be a dev environment any more. Too many security problems, plus it always was a clunky mish mash of old technology that MS is trying desperately to retire. Just my opinion. I will continue to support my clients up through 2003, but beyond that my services (in Office) are actively discouraged by MS and so I will happily move on. We always were second class citizens, I might as well move on to VB.Net and keep my second class citizenship in good standing. Plus with the emphasis on the web, distributed this-n-that and data everywhere, ASP.Net, VB.net and SQL Server is a powerful environment. IMHO, nothing will ever again match the RAD capabilities of Access for database (specifically) application development but once I get up to speed in DotNet I will be in the same league (in some ways) and waaaaaay more capable in many others, so it will be a good tradeoff. John W. Colby www.ColbyConsulting.com Contribute your unused CPU cycles to a good cause: http://folding.stanford.edu/ -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Martin Reid Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 2:55 PM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re: [AccessD] The future of Access, .NET and SQL All I can pass on is what I hear and pick up from the web. Personally I think they will make a hugh push towards SharePoint technologies with the new release of Office and that seems to be the direction they are heading in talks we have been having with them re projects in the University. On the Access front I think MS focus is on .NET and XML as data the data stores but thats my own opinion. RE JET I did hear sometime ago that it would no londer be developed but as John says I am sure it wil remain about. I did also hear the new engine woudl work with JET. I do know that when the Access dev team reps where in the UK they didnt want to meet developers but wanted to meet with users. Now that I do know and have an email about somewhere that says that. Maybe that sort of sums up what they think. Martin -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com