Dan Waters
dwaters at usinternet.com
Mon Sep 10 10:50:46 CDT 2007
For everyone: For a customer, I did some looking into the lifecycle support plan that MS has for Access. Here's what I found: 1) This is a nice graphic that shows how MS starts with Mainstream support for 5 years, changes to Extended Support for 5 more years, and continues with on-line Self-Help support. This means that any program under this policy is guaranteed to work for at least 10 years after its introduction. Access is in the Business and Development software category. http://support.microsoft.com/?pr=lifecycle 2) This is a small chart that shows that MS will end Extended Support for Access 2003 on 4/8/2014. http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=2509 3) This is another small chart that shows that MS will end Extended Support for Access 2007 on 4/11/2017. This is important because Access 2007 and Access 2003 use the identical programming language, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). This demonstrates that VBA will work until at least 4/11/2017 - 10 years from now. MS will almost certainly allow VBA to continue to work on its operating system (Windows 'something') well past that date. http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=11265 4) This page (the gray box on top) discusses MS's decision to discontinue issuing new licenses for VBA to other companies as of 7/1/2007. For example, SolidWorks uses VBA as the language that programmers can use to do interesting and time-saving things in Solidworks. However, MS does see an eventual end to VBA (10+ years), so they have stopped allowing any new companies to begin using it. This does not affect any current MS or other application that does now use VBA. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/isv/bb190538.aspx So - my conclusion is that if something works now in Access 2003 or 2007, it will continue to work for at least the next 10 years. This gives us all plenty of time to figure out what's next. My own plan is to wait until the next version of Access is released, see what they've done to the programming language, and go from there. I suspect that the next programming language for Access (in 2-3 years?) will be some variant of VB.Net, or will at least be highly compatible. Perhaps a VB.Net For Applications (VBNA)? This should mean an easier transition at that time than diving into VB.Net today. I hope! Dan Waters -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Jim Dettman Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 9:50 AM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] Access to VB.Net Joe, I've been avoiding it like the plague, but it looks like the time has come when I'm going to need to bit the bullet now that VFP is basically a dead product and Access seems to be heading back into end-user territory. Jim. -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Joe Hecht Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2007 6:54 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] Access to VB.Net It was enough to drive me out of regular professional development. Joe Hecht jmhecht at earthlink.net -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2007 3:37 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] Access to VB.Net You will enjoy the power of .Net, it truly is awesome (and frustrating - the learning curve). Enjoy, John W. Colby Colby Consulting www.ColbyConsulting.com -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gmail Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2007 1:27 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] Access to VB.Net Yes John, I think (after reading all the comments posted and then applying all that advice to my personal circumstance) that your advice is sound. So, I will obtain VS2005 and take it from there. Many thanks MAx -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby Sent: Friday, September 07, 2007 7:12 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] Access to VB.Net Max, I would go with the Visual Studio 2005. It has vb.net as well as the other visual languages - C#.net, asp.net etc. You could go with vb.net however... The vb.Net standalone has some important limitations. It is designed as an "introduction" to the .net environment to suck programmers (and non programmers) in. There are some slight syntax and capability differences that will prevent your using the results should you need the higher powered suite. I own both and have worked in both but now focus on the Visual Studio side since I discovered the limitations. VB.Net is FREE, however as you are looking to actually use the results the "free" is not a good compromise for you I think. John W. Colby Colby Consulting www.ColbyConsulting.com -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gmail Sent: Friday, September 07, 2007 1:53 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: [AccessD] Access to VB.Net Can I ask for some advice please. I have been looking at getting VB.Net software and all I can find is either Visual Studio 2005 or VB 2005. Which one do I go for? Is there something other than these two that I have missed? All I want is the VB.Net stuff so that I can start to learn how to convert my existing apps to vb.net Many thanks Max -- 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 -- 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