[AccessD] report on Access Devcon Las Vegas

Same impression I've gotten at other conferences.  Two words to
developers using M$ tools, Sharepoint and .NET.  At the last
DevConnections conference I (where Access was not represented but
Sharepoint and .NET were) I heard a lot of "just like Access" and
"similar to Access" when the speakers showed new data access tools like
grids and and master/detail controls. 

Now whether an Access-Sharepoint connection keeps Access development
alive or not we'll see...


Jim DeMarco

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Hale, Jim
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006 5:07 PM
To: 'Accessd (E-mail)
Subject: [AccessD] report on Access Devcon Las Vegas

I thought I would report to the group some of my impressions on the
future of Access as presented at the "Advisor Summit" in Vegas this past
week.
First, I am very encouraged by the fact Microsoft appears to be pouring
substantial resources into Access so the rumors of Access's demise are
greatly exaggerated. Having said that, my strong impression is that they
are strengthening the product for power/personal users as opposed to
developers.
For example, they emphasized several times the experience of first
opening Access will provide a much richer interface with a lot of sample
databases to entice the new user to take the plunge. They contrasted
this with the current environment which isn't exactly intuitive when
opened for the first time. 

The item that drew the most groans of disbelief from developers was
Microsoft's promotion and re-emphasis on macros (of all things!). In
fact, the new sample databases will be written to use macros! While MS
claims the macros have been strengthened, the confusing old halt message
dialogue popped up when a macro they were running during the
presentation ran into trouble (sigh). Apparently the real issue is that
macros can run safely in sandbox mode whereas VBA will still be subject
to the same old security risks. Consequently new installs of Access will
have VBA security set to high similar (I think) to the security screen
Excel currently shows.  While I am hazy on all the particulars and the
exact ramifications of this, I have little doubt this will make
developer's lives more complicated. This strikes me as an exercise in
CYA for MS. 

I specifically asked if VBA was dead and the answer was definitely not,
in fact (according to the MS guys) the object models were being
improved, enhanced, etc. although I can't recall any specifics. ADPs,
however, appear to have no future and  I was encouraged not to start any
new projects using them. Also interesting was the fact that the infamous
Northwind is being rewritten. Apparently the debate within Microsoft is
how complicated the VBA code should be since this is basically an
example DB for newbies. My strong opinion to them was that the code
should be up to the highest standards.
This means using classes, function calls, error checking, naming
conventions, etc. IMHO when  newbies first venture into VBA they often
take Microsoft's examples as gospel. (I have to admit I did when I first
started) so Northwind should not be written by some summer intern.
Especially since users will be using macros much more, when they are
ready to venture into the world of VBA they should be exposed to the
best coding practices.
Anyway, if you have a strong opinion about what Northwind should look
like I can give you the email of the program manager who is trying to
figure out what to do. 

Anyway, it was a worthwhile conference although the slots didn't cut me
any slack. Apparently the money you take to Vegas stays in Vegas.

Jim Hale

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