Jim Lawrence
accessd at shaw.ca
Thu May 7 12:37:16 CDT 2009
That is quite an interesting route... I think many of the application developers on this site exist thanks to some IT department or some smart manager who recognized talent. ;-) Jim -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Drew Wutka Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 10:13 AM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re: [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. :) The information contained in this transmission is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain II-VI Proprietary and/or II-VI Business Sensitive material. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately and destroy the material in its entirety, whether electronic or hard copy. You are notified that any review, retransmission, copying, disclosure, dissemination, or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com