[AccessD] SPAM-LOW: Skill Zones

I use classes to manipulate shapes made up latitude/longitude points.

They are often called upon to determine whether a point lies inside
of their polygon or whether shapes overlap.

They are in memory and have events just like Access Forms and
when they close all data is saved back to a table.
-
Michael R Mattys
MapPoint and Database Dev
www.mattysconsulting.com
-

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "jwcolby" <jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com>
To: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving" 
<accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 12:56 PM
Subject: Re: [AccessD] SPAM-LOW: Skill Zones


> Of course I agree with Charlotte, when you finally wrap your mind around 
> classes, suddenly they
> become like a nail gun vs a hammer.  But you have to really get there and 
> that is the problem most
> people have.
>
> Imagine that you live a mile from town.  You have always ridden a bike. 
> It seems like that works
> quite well, after all you have always ridden a bike, and you cannot really 
> imagine why you would
> need more.
>
> Then your friend lends you a car while he's on vacation for the month. 
> Asks you to feed his cat and
> dog, check on his mother in the next town over.  you drive, you run 
> around, you haul stuff for his
> mom, you suddenly see that a car is a different breed of transportation 
> from a bike.  A bike works,
> but it is just a different breed.
>
> Until you actually use it, day in and day out, you just never appreciated 
> how different it was and
> what it allowed you to do.
>
> There are things that you simply cannot reasonably do without classes. 
> But until you have tried to
> do those things you cannot understand what they might possibly be.
>
> Let me give you an example, caching data.
>
> I use tables where the data doesn't change from month to month.  These 
> tables have hundreds of
> records, and yes, I could just set up things to seek etc to go through and 
> find data in these
> tables.  But I USE these tables to control whether specific tabs are 
> displayed, whether certain
> subforms are allowed to load and so forth.  I use these tables 
> PROGRAMMATICALLY, in loops in
> programs where decisions are made etc.  To try and seek to specific 
> records then get certain fields
> would be several orders of magnitude slower than to simply load each 
> record into a class, then load
> those record class instances into a collection, keyed on a common lookup 
> field (what you would Find
> Next on or SEEK on).
>
> Record / record supervisor.  Once I have these I can get at any field that 
> I need (or specific
> fields that I need all of the time) and I can get at it INSTANTLY.
>
> Collections of classes keyed on a search data are something that you 
> cannot even understand until
> you do it.  Once you do it, the light bulb goes on.
>
> Goto http://www.databaseadvisors.com/downloads.asp and click on the 
> zipcode demo.  You cannot do
> this kind of thing without classes.
>
> Click on the Openargs demo.  You cannot do this without classes.
>
> I could swear I had another demo up there for SysVars.  That is another 
> thing you just can't do
> without classes (it is the cached record idea).
>
> I would never say that you can't be a very good, very successful developer 
> without classes.  I would
> say that once you understand and use them you will be in an entirely 
> different league, because what
> you can do suddenly changes.
>
> I would also say that until you truly understand classes you will NEVER 
> transition smoothly to .Net.
>
> John W. Colby
> www.ColbyConsulting.com
>
>
> Max Wanadoo wrote:
>> Dan, you don't.  I have been using access for donkey years...you DONT 
>> need
>> classes.  Dont listen to the purists.  Do what works for you..
>>
>> Ignore the apple...
>>
>> Max
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
>> [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Charlotte 
>> Foust
>> Sent: 01 July 2009 16:22
>> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
>> Subject: Re: [AccessD] SPAM-LOW: Skill Zones
>>
>> No, Dan, you need lots of classes, but you only recognized the need for
>> one!  LOL
>>
>> Charlotte Foust
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
>> [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Dan Waters
>> Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 8:17 AM
>> To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
>> Subject: Re: [AccessD] SPAM-LOW: Skill Zones
>>
>> John,
>>
>> How about if I added in 'Large Scale Data Transformation'?  From your
>> descriptions of what you do, that sounds reasonably concise.
>>
>> You're right - if you can do everything in the two lower zones and a few
>> things in the Pro Zone, then that's where you're working!  I have to
>> make a confession - I've only written one class.  But - I only needed
>> that one.
>>
>> Dan
>
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