[AccessD] My Comments

I sympathize with you on this, and agree whole-heartedly. Here in Ontario,
almost no one is requesting new Access apps; rather the few that are
requesting want some existing app migrated to some newer version of
Office/Access/Excel, and to ensure that it works when they pull the plug on
winXP and replace it with win7.

The up-side, if there is any, is that you can double your rates by
delivering a C# app instead. Thank the Lord that many companies poo-poo
Access and even VB.NET; for some ignorance-based reason, which we might be
thankful for: there exist several translators that inhale VB.NET code and
exhale C#.NET code, so even if you don't know much about C# but do know
something about VB.NET, then you can write in your language and translate
it to upscale clients. This is not the ideal path, but it will enable you
to get comfortable with the changes in syntax.

That said, there are several significant areas in C# that have no VB
equivalents, so if you need them, you're on your own. But the converse is
untrue: everything that can be done in VB.NET can be done in C#.

What is sadly lacking, from the POV of Access developers looking to
graduate, is Step By Step tutorials that guide one into the transition. The
Northwind.NET initiative, whose primary contributors are the esteemed
Shamil and Gustav, falls seriously short of this requirement. That is most
emphatically NOT to slam their initiative, but rather to say that it goes
too far too quickly, and leaves the novice in the dust: so many assemblies,
so few instructions or guidelines justifying their existence or necessity.

As I plod through this stuff, I am simultaneously writing a tut that with
luck will elucidate the path that an Access developer should take into this
new world. This tut will involve every mis-step I made along the way, and
with luck, will provide a path from a simple two-table app to a 200-table
app.

As for cloud, I remain in the Nay Nay Nay camp, until proven otherwise, for
several reasons, the most significant of which is performance depending
upon one's connection/speed. I have a slow connection and remain to stay
that way, so I can test the bottom-end, and let me say, the Bottom End
sucks! Maybe it's nice on the top end, I wouldn't know.

A.