[AccessD] Old Dog NewTricks

I am watching and listening to my brother curse MVVM as we put together a
Silverlight/XAML/WCF app. The craving for the power and speed is with us
also ...

However, I see that this Visual Studio LightSwitch is the exact thing that I
need for something that just works (much hidden implementation) and is
customizable - like Access with VBA - for all of our older clients who have
no desire to move all of their data from Access to SQL Server. I really hope
that they provide a data access method to Jet.


Michael R Mattys
Business Process Developers
www.mattysconsulting.com


-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 10:24 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Old Dog NewTricks

 > 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