jwcolby
jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Sun Jul 25 15:08:01 CDT 2010
Edward, Yep, Access is a very useful tool. When you look back at what Brad Marks is asking, Access is perhaps perfect for those kinds of things, AS LONG AS it is not going to run a Lowes hardware or something similar. I wrote a call center application for the disability insurance industry in Access. I started in 2003 doing this. The client was about 20 people, brand new company, small budget etc. Access was a good fit for that task, at that time. We got the app up in a basic form really pretty quickly and then added on over the years. And therein lies the problem. The app is approaching the limits of its expandability now. The application has grown and grown and grown. It is not all that big (as big programs go) but it is getting unwieldy. The language does not support many things I would do if I had a C# / .Net environment to work with. I make it work, but at ~30 users, ~150 forms, dozens of classes PLUS my framework, NO viable source control, third party dlls / tools for handling things like compression / encryption / ftp and so forth... (NONE of which will EVER be native)... It is just getting to be a headache. Trying to have multiple developers work on it at the same time? Ick. It still works, and I still support it, but it is just reaching that point where a different environment would make maintenance so much easier. But it did its job. It was quick to get rolling, expandable all these years etc. Access is indeed a very useful tool, as long as you understand what it is good at AND its limitations and carefully analyze why you are using it. John W. Colby www.ColbyConsulting.com Edward Zuris wrote: > I find Access to be a very useful tool. > > It is everything the PDP-11 RSTS/E ever > wanted to be. How is that for ancient. > > Microsoft has its own agenda to enhance > its income, which is what corporations do. > > It is neither good, or bad, though it may > make things hard on people who use some of > their products. > > I have sat in meetings with some Microsoft > folks, years ago, and they said they want a > bigger peace of the development action. > > Access could compete with some of their > other products or future plans. > > Maybe a bunch of us should look at Access 2000, > or 2003, see what it does and create a spec., > to create something like Access, but in the open > source environment. Sort of like the start of > the IBM PC clones from the 1980s and 1990s. > > It would be a huge undertaking. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com > [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby > Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2010 1:02 PM > To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving > Subject: Re: [AccessD] Future of Microsoft Access > > > Brad, > > I have been developing in Access since 1994. I love it up through > version 2003. 2007 I don't much > like. > > I am moving on to C# and .Net. The reason mostly has to do with the > power of the platform. Over 15 > years of working with Access I have seen about ONE major upgrade, from > 97 to 2K / XP / 2003. That > involved migrating Access to the code editor, and giving us ADO. > > In terms of actual additions to the languages, after classes were added, > event handling and ADO, > pretty much nothing. > > So as a developer I have not been given any major new tools. > > Now, look at .Net. It started in the late 90s, and has been constantly > improved. C# and the .Net > framework is probably the most powerful environment I have ever seen, > and EVERY upgrade, major new > capabilities are added to it. > > Not silly tool bars, things like LinQ. > > To see the modern programming constructs C# gives us look at this: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_Sharp_%28programming_language%29 > > In this, look at what was added every version: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework > > Now, go look at what was added in Access 2003, 2007 and now 2010. > > Access is a good tool. It could have been a great tool, but MS just > isn't spending the resources to > make it great. Access in 2010 is not significantly different that it > was in 2002. > > What did Stuart say... > > (Of course there are times when you can give it a bit of help by rolling > your own "glue applications " and DLLs in PowerBasic <g>) > > Or... you could just learn .Net. > > Having said all of that, Access is a premier reporting tool. It will > attach to just about anything > with just a few clicks, and it's reporting abilities are pretty darned > good. And if you just need a > "little app" to do some "little thing" then it is an absolutely awesome > tool. I wouldn't touch it > today for starting a large enterprise application. > > John W. Colby > www.ColbyConsulting.com > > > Brad Marks wrote: >> All, >> >> I suspect that I have quite a different perspective than most of you >> regarding Access. After many years of working in the IBM mainframe >> environment, I now find myself working for a small firm. We have >> several PC-based purchased products and we are using Access to build >> interfaces and to provide an easy way to get at data that in the past >> was very difficult to get at. >> >> I am very impressed with Microsoft Access and what we are able to do >> with it. So far, I have not encountered anything that needs to be >> done that cannot be done with Access. All of our applications are for > >> internal use only and are there is no need for them to be Web-based. >> >> Over the past couple months, there have been some comments in this >> forum regarding Access and its future. Some people have said that >> Access is declining in use and is becoming a niche product. I would >> like to get some more perspective on this issue. Again, I am coming >> from a non-Microsoft environment, so I do not know the history, >> evolution, direction, and future of the Microsoft products. >> >> If not Access for the small business environment, then what? >> >> Are some people suggesting that Visual Studio is going to replace >> Access? >> >> If so, isn't Visual Studio much more complicated and expensive than >> Access? >> >> If Access can get the job done, is there a need for a more powerful >> and complicated product? >> >> If we continue to build things with Access, are we going to be kicking > >> ourselves 5 years from now? >> >> These are all probably dumb questions. Please cut me a little slack >> as many years of JCL, DB2, COBOL, BAL, etc have left me a bit >> feeble-minded :-) >> >> Thanks in advance for your ideas and perspectives on this topic. >> >> Brad