[AccessD] OT: ...end of line for Borland...

My Dad worked for IBM, so I've been around computers since I was 5.
First computers I remember using were an IBM 5100 and a 'KIM' computer
(which was a kit build, my Dad built in college).

I fiddled around with plain old Basic during my school years, then
landed all sorts of odd jobs.  Music major in college, asst. manager at
a Burger King, Nuclear Mechanic in the Navy, several Mechanical jobs as
a civy (not automotive, usually pump and a/c systems), taught high
school kids how to take the SATs, etc.  Had no real formal training on
computers (an 'Intro To Computer Learning on Apple IIes....very boring,
there are like three commands which were different between Apple DOS
(and Apple Basic) and PC DOS /Basic.... at least that I remember...I
remember that to get a list of files you used catalogue instead of
dir.).

My last mechanical job was as a plant maintenance tech at DFW airport.
We needed an inventory program BADLY.  Had rooms full of parts, but
nothing catalogued.  So we'd either order parts we had 20 of, or we'd
spend days looking for something we swore we had!  Found a nifty little
inventory shareware program on the web.  The IT department at DFW said
'no way' to shareware programs..... a few months later, we got new PC's,
with Office 97 on them (running NT 4).  Poked around and discovered this
neat little (or not so little) db program called Access 97.  Spent a few
months building what started as an inventory program, that turned into a
job scheduling, inventory system, hours scheduling, etc program.  My
co-workers were literally scared of computers, so I needed to make that
application as transparent as possible, so I found a little code to hide
the Access Window.  Couldn't get it to work (now I can do something like
that in my sleep! LOL), so I emailed the IT department for help. 

They kindly explained how to hide the database window. I explained I
knew how to do THAT, but had a function to hide the Access Window and
couldn't get it to work.  Figured it out that night, and let them know
how to do it.  The next morning, my boss said we were no longer allowed
to directly contact the IT department.  

A few months later, I left that job, and got into the computer field.
So I'd still be a mechanic if that IT department had just allowed a
shareware program! ;)

Drew

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Dian
Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 11:08 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: ...end of line for Borland...

Someone on this list should do a survey of where we all came to Access
from...I read all this and it is interesting to follow the different
paths
we each followed... 

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Eric Barro
Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 6:30 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: ...end of line for Borland...

I was also hooked on Turbo C by Borland!

I remember scouring the computer stores looking for anything on Turbo C.
I
started my programming "career" on an Atari creating macros for a
spreadsheet program before graduating to Lotus Symphony's integrated
spreadsheet and database applications. After that, I tried dBASE III and
Clipper. The school I was working for used filePro so I had to learn
that
and on the side I taught myself to program in C using Turbo C. It took a
year before I finally grasped the concept of C programming and came up
with
the what I considered a really cool application -- a fancy and advanced
menu
driven interface.

When C++ came out I figured that it was too complicated to learn
object-oriented programming and stopped learning C and shifted my focus
to
MS Access 1.0 and finally web-based programming.

Today, I'm back full circle, programming this time with Microsoft's C#
using
(GASP!) object-oriented/event-driven programming techniques. :)

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