L
Larry Linson
PMK said:I just wonder if I am wasting my time learning VS 2005.
I've developed in Access for a long time, and seek out advanced work
which invariably requires complex unbound data entry forms connected
to a MS SQL back end.
Taking a hard look and experimenting with dotnet 2.0 and Visual Studio
2005 to see if dotnet Windows forms might be a good alternative for
these specific kinds of jobs, so far it doesn't seem so. My impression
thus far is it's great for quick and dirty jobs, but not complex ones.
What do you guys think? Better to stay with Access and SQL Server or
not?
Use appropriate tools for the job at hand: In general, for "normal business
database applications" in a single-user, multi-user, or client-server
environment, Access is the better tool; for "web based" or distributed
enterprise applications, the DotNet environment is appropriate.
For applications which can be done with Access, there is a significant
advantage in time and effort to create and maintain the application over
doing the same thing in DotNet.
For applications which could be done in Access but for which the users or
the developers believe that user interface "glitz and glitter" is important,
and for which finances are available to license the third-party tools that
make it possible to create that glitz and glitter, and for which
implementation costs are secondary, then DotNet is the tool you want. {None
of my clients/customers, BTW, ever considered implementation costs to be
"secondary" nor were willing to pay much (some of them not willing to pay
even a nanocent) for "glitz and glitter".}
For applications which can only be done with software tools of "grander
scope", Access just isn't suitable so the comparison is not worthwhile.
There are many who prefer other "grander scope" development
tools/environments over DotNet -- as my work is all "normal business
applications" for which Access is appropriate, I don't have a dog in that
fight.
Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP