[AccessD] Access Development Future

[Paul Hartland]

Hi Rocky & David,

Not done any Access data ase work for many years, but work for a company
maintaining a legacy VB6 app, so I do sometimes whack a question across
into here.  I am 57 and VBA/VB6, SQL, SSRS and Crystal Reports is all I
really know.  Been trying to learn Full stack development using VB.net and
C# but the courses I am buying via Udemy although in depth are quite slow
at times, so I find myself only being able to do an hour or two at a time,
I need to be doing something more with the code I learn.  Like have a full
application to play with etc.

Paul Hartland
paul.hartland at googlemail.com

On Mon, 26 Oct 2026, 01:07 David Emerson, <newsgrps at dalyn.co.nz> wrote:

> Hi Rocky,
>
> I am definitely in the "years" category rather than "decades".
>
> I figure that it is the huge installed base that are the ones that are
> more likely to be needing support than new applications from scratch. The
> trick is letting them know we are still around.
>
> David
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: AccessD <accessd-bounces+newsgrps=dalyn.co.nz at databaseadvisors.com>
> On Behalf Of Rocky Smolin
> Sent: Monday, 26 October 2026 11:02 am
> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving <
> accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] Access Development Future
>
> David: Nice to hear from you.
>
> I'm still doing sporadic work for a few legacy customers. It's fun. But
> it's not a living. Well, that's because I started to wind my business down
> many years ago. Simply did not P.R. or advertising. And the clients mostly
> went away. And I'm retired and those few extra bucks are not going to
> change our lifestyle.
>
> I have heard (and I believe) that there is a huge installed base of Access
> apps, and they'll all need support from time to time. You don't need 99% of
> that market - just enough to keep you and the bank happy.
>
> Access and VBA is an obsolete technology. But so is COBOL and during the
> Y2K "crisis" they were bringing retired COBOL programmers in to update the
> apps.
>
> But a new business of any size is probably not going to have an app
> written from scratch like I used to do - they're going to want it in
> something that can port to the web easily (or start there).
>
> I don't know who old you are or how close to retirement you are or how
> close to being ready for that. But if you've got a time horizon in decades
> instead of years, you might want to think about taking your database and UI
> designing skills to a more moderne platform.
>
> Let's see what others on AccessD think (if there are others :--) )
>
>  Best,
>
> r
>
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 25, 2026 at 2:26 PM David Emerson <newsgrps at dalyn.co.nz>
> wrote:
>
> > Greetings Listers,
> >
> > All has been quiet on the Access front.
> >
> > I am interested on how many of us are still supporting Access
> applications?
> > Has AI made a major difference to existing client databases or is
> > there still a niche for our work in smaller businesses that don't have
> > the funds to take advantage of the latest technologies?
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > David Emerson
> > Dalyn Software Ltd
> > Adelaide, Australia
>
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