[AccessD] Old Dog, New Tricks / To Visual Studio or Not

Fri Mar 6 12:18:33 CST 2015

Hi Brad,

About two years ago I began programming in Visual Studio using VB.Net, after 10 years of programming VBA in mostly Access.  After two years, I'm I still do.  The learning curve from VBA to VB.Net was much shorter, and I found that I could always translate any example in C# to VB quickly using a code converter (converter.telerik.com).  And now that I've been developing for a while, I usually don't need to translate the examples (i.e., Stackoverflow.com) to understand what they're doing.  Today, switching languages would be a relatively minor event.

>From time to time I read lists of popular languages.  If you add the number of VB developers and the number of C# developers, about 40% of developers use VB.

For some reason, many developers want to proselytize about some language being better than others.  C# or VB being a long-standing argument.  In truth, VB has a few minor advantages (passing a variable quantity parameter array being one of them), but overall the functional difference is like buying French fries at McDonalds or buying French fries at Burger King.  If you have a preference - it's just personal.

Based on my experience, your statement of concern about minimizing your learning curve, the fact that you are working as a company developer (vs. a developer in a software company), and the fact that you are unlikely to work with other developers who use C#, I would recommend that you develop in VB.  Your company isn't going to care which language you use, but they will care how long it takes you to get something finished.  

Microsoft just recently rebuilt the VB.Net language from the ground up for VS 2015 (to be released later this year).  So with that kind of investment this language will be around for a long time.  And, it is Microsoft's stated position that they intend to remove the functional differences between VB and C# over time.

My last word - I absolutely wish that I had taken a beginner's course in Visual Studio or VB.Net when I started.  I did a little looking, but couldn't find one.  There are some on-line courses, but I'm a little skeptical about cost/value on those.  If someone has used on-line training for Visual Studio I'd like to ask them to speak up on their experiences.

Good Luck!
Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Brad Marks
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2015 11:46 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Old Dog, New Tricks / To Visual Studio or Not

David,

Thanks for your reply and insights.

I have not programmed in C before.  I have looked at C# a little bit.  I am curious as to why you recommend C# over VB.  

Currently our website (where people order stuff) is maintained by an outside contractor who uses Visual Studio.  If we stay with this contractor and do not move the maintenance of the website to "in-house", then any VS apps that I would build would be for Windows Desktop PCs only.

However, if we do bring the website maintenance in-house, then I will need to also build web apps/pages.

I am just trying to get a better handle on how complicated it would be to jump from Access to Visual Studio.

I have had quite a bit of success building small applications with Access.  These apps seem to work nicely for the most part.  Every once in a while something flakey happens, but these occurrences are quite rare.

Thanks again for your reply.

Brad    

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of David McAfee
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2015 11:31 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Old Dog, New Tricks / To Visual Studio or Not

If you've used VBA. the jump to VB.net isn't that bad, but I would strongly recommend against that and jumping straight into C# if time allows it.
If you've programmed in C (or one of its dialects in the past, C# should be a little easier for you to pick up).

I jumped into VB.Net first, and really wish I would have just spent the time (that I didn't have) learning C# right away.

Visual Studio is way more powerful and easier to deploy as most computers should have the correct run time already installed (free deployment).

It does take longer to develop stuff (IMO) in visual studio than it does in Access, but it's not that bad.

I take it that you would still be creating WinForms and not Webpage front ends?

I posted some code VB.Net code the other day under the thread titled "Automatic Update Function".

I can post the same code in C# to show you how similar/different they are to each other.

D

On Fri, Mar 6, 2015 at 4:50 AM, Brad Marks <bradm at blackforestltd.com> wrote:

> All,
>
> I have developed applications since 1975 with my first 33 years in the 
> mainframe realm (IBM, MVS, COBOL, DB2, Easytrieve, BAL, RPG, etc.)  I 
> am now semi-retired and work part-time for a small manufacturing firm
> (50 people).  Over the past few years, I have developed a number of 
> applications with Microsoft Access.  About five years ago, I suggested 
> to the management team that we look at using Visual Studio.
> This suggestion was voted down due to the time and expense of 
> introducing Visual Studio at that point in time.
>
> The company ownership and leadership has changed over the past few 
> months.  I believe that there might now be a willingness to consider 
> the introduction of Visual Studio.  I have briefly read about “Visual 
> Studio
> 2013 Community” and I have started to watch some Visual Studio 
> training videos on YouTube.
>
> It appears that I can experiment with “Visual Studio 2013 Community” 
> with no financial investment, just an investment of time.
>
> However, because the small firm that I work for has annual revenues 
> greater than one million, I would not be able to build and deploy 
> applications with “Visual Studio 2013 Community” at work.  We would 
> need to buy the professional version.
>
> I have some questions about moving from Access/VBA to Visual Studio 
> (or using VS to supplement existing Access application).
>
> How steep is the learning curve?
>
> How long did it take others to get up to speed with VS?
>
> When I develop applications with Microsoft Access, I use a “full” 
> version of Access.  The deployment is made to about 25 PCs that have 
> Microsoft Access “Runtime” (free).
> I assume that if an application is developed with Visual Studio, it 
> can be deployed to other PCs for free.  Is this true?
>
> I am going to be 63 years old in September.  I really like to learn 
> new things and experiment.  I have tons of free time to watch training 
> videos and play with the software.  However, at my age and with 
> possible cognitive disabilities from so many years of working with 
> COBOL, I am not sure that I want to take on something as large as 
> Visual Studio.  I know that this is really a personal decision, but I 
> would appreciate any insights about an old dog’s ability to learn new tricks.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Brad
>
> PS.  Currently all of my development work is for in-house desktop PC 
> applications.  Our website is outsourced to a contractor.  There has 
> been some discussion about bringing the maintenance of this website in-house.
> This would obviously change the picture.
>
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>
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