jwcolby
jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Wed Jan 12 21:24:27 CST 2011
> I think one of the strongest reasons favoring .Net is political. LOL. This absolutely does exist. Having spent the time and effort to begin to learn it, my strongest reason for using .Net is the power it gives me. Remember that: 1) I am a programmer, and was a programmer long before I met Access. 2) I have used Access almost exclusively since 1994. 3) I have about 16 months total in C#, and even during that time I have been doing a lot of Access support. 4) I am a programmer. C# is a *dream* programming language and .Net is a *dream* environment. I started learning to program in 1976 in assembler for US Navy Univac machines. Before coming to Access in 2004 I programmed in various flavors of Basic, FORTRAN, Prolog, assembler, Turbo Pascal, Turbo C, dBase . scripting. It isn't like I haven't been around the block, and it isn't like I am a C snob who hasn't a clue what Access can do. I would say I am one of the more capable VBA / Access developers on this list. I spent 10 years doing *only* Access and the last 16 months supporting Access systems while learning and writing .Net systems. But I am a programmer and I *love* the .Net environment. I mostly understand OO development, I understand classes, I mostly understand inheritance, I understand raising and sinking events, I am rapidly learning threads. All of that stuff is extremely powerful and most of that stuff simply is not available in any real sense in VBA. I stretched the limits of Access, I know what is there and what isn't. C# (or VB.Net) / .Net is just a different universe from VBA, and it is a universe that I prefer, that I enjoy, that I crave. If you are not a programmer first, if you only really know Access, or if you only want to do small scale database development, then Access is your tool, and a very fine tool for what it does. Access has been my main tool for a long time and I am not saying that it is not killer for what it does. When I use .Net it is not about being unfaithful to Access. It is about doing what I love with the coolest programming tool that I have ever had the enjoyment of using. I have dreamed of .Net all of my life and here it is. And if you can't afford the retail version, C# / VB.net express and SQL Server 2008 express are free. Dream tools for absolutely free. It doesn't get any better than that. John W. Colby www.ColbyConsulting.com On 1/12/2011 7:15 PM, Rocky Smolin wrote: > I think one of the strongest reasons favoring .Net is political. There is a > pernicious, unreasoning, prejudice bordering on bigotry against Access in IT > circles which infects users and clients. It's common wisdom in those > circles that Access is a weak, unstable, platform which users can actually > work with and that causes loss of control for IT - anathema. > > Walk in with a $10 budget for an Access app you might lose to someone > proposing the same app in .Net for $20. So learn .Net and make more $$. > > Rocky > > > -----Original Message----- > From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com > [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Tony Septav > Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 2:49 PM > To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving > Subject: [AccessD] Old Dog NewTricks > > Hey All > Sorry I do not want to start a flame up (I think that is the term), but in > my research of VB.Net the conundrum of what are the advantages of my using > VB.Net to enhance the development of a database application versus ACCESS > keeps coming up. If you can could you please direct me to articles > expressing this view or your views pro/con (I am not writing an article on > this, it is just for my own curiosity) it would greatly be appreciated > (remember I am a Newbie to VB.Net). If you don't mind, to avoid clogging up > the user group, please EMail me offline. Any responses will be greatly > appreciated. > > Thanks > Tony > -- > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com >