Paul said:
I'm a lone developer using VB 2005 soon to be VS 2010.... I have a
project (application) with about 20 forms and about 50 classes, and 25
crystal reports. At what point is a project getting "too big" for a
single exe or application. When do I look to split it up, and if so what
is the preferred practice?
The compiled EXE is about a 2MB...This is a commercial application.
Thanks
Paul
Then you should learn how to develop enterprise level applications that
implement a design pattern like Model View Presenter, which can be used
for Windows desktop applications with UI/MVP/BLL/service layer/DAL.
The exe would be light with the UI only as the UI should be as dumb as
possible, making calls to the MVP/BLL/service layer/DAL with each being
a DLL with the UI having reference to the MVP, the MVP having reference
to the BLL, the BLL having reference to the service layer, and the
service layer having reference to the DAL.
What is MVC?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller
MVC is for Web UI's.
What is MVP?
MVP is a software pattern considered a derivative of the
Model-view-controller.
MVP can be used by Web form based UI or Windows form based UI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_View_Presenter
MODEL-VIEW-PRESENTER
http://www.polymorphicpodcast.com/
click 'Shows'
click 'Design Patterns Bootcamp: Model View * Patterns*
view parts 1-5
The shows will cover the Web and Windows form based applications.
If you want the fast track, you have the experience and expertise,
DOfactory covers it all.
<
http://www.dofactory.com/Patterns/Patterns.aspx>
<
http://www.dofactory.com/Framework/Framework.aspx>
You should look into using Linq-2-SQL or ADO.NET Entity Framework.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb425822.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADO.NET_Entity_Framework
I don't know if you can apply either technology with Crystal Report, but
you're binding datasets to reports, then I don't see why they wouldn't
work with Crystal Report.