Re: Open source alternative for MsAccess?
From: James Fortune (jafortun_at_oakland.edu)
Date: 06/21/04
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Date: 21 Jun 2004 01:14:18 -0700
steve@nospam.com (Steve) wrote in message news:<40cf6a30.22686120@news.westnet.com>...
> But it is so easy to check the default "require variable declarations"
> option on.
>
> I agree with your defense of Access. So much complaining about
> Access; but very few products that can really compete with it for
> database centric RAD applications.
>
> Steven
Having programmed in nearly all the languages and OS's mentioned in
this thread (except COBOL and Lisp), here are a few comments/ramblings
I have:
Bill Gates' idea, perhaps driven in part by nostalgia, of gentrifying
BASIC into a full programming language was very important. The main
programming languages at that time fit into the Basic/Fortran,
Pascal/Ada and C/C++ styles. The C/C++ languages and even the
Pascal/Ada languages required special purpose I/O routines for simple
tasks. The additions to BASIC that became VB allowed it to be
programmed in a structured way. VB's simplicity allowed developers to
create robust applications quickly yet still allowed for C/C++ or
assembly code extensions when extra speed was required.
I had already created some applications using VB 3.0 and VC++ 1.0 when
Paradox database programming using PAL was getting popular. Database
programming using PAL was a lot easier than creating data structures
and methods for accessing that data. The most frustrating part about
PAL, possibly because of my lack of experience, was getting the syntax
correct. Access 2.0 looked amazingly like Paradox except that the
built-in tools helped me get the syntax down quicker. I already knew
enough VB to do the rest. I felt sorry for Borland that MS blew the
original innovator out of the water, but I knew that to ignore MS
software would be a backward step professionally. I made the decision
that no matter what other OS's and languages I learned that I would be
able to do it using Windows and MS products also. VBA has been the
key to keeping clients happy rather than frustrating them. VBA is not
perfect, but if development time is inversely proportional to
perfection then VBA is the closest to perfection. Being able to
integrate with MS Office products using Automation is a bonus.
Some weaknesses of VBA when used with Access:
- There should be thousands of ActiveX controls by now.
- Having to stop subform code for other tasks from running when it
gets focus
- Keeping track of where you are on a Subform including field and
cursor position is a major hassle
- All the arcana that can getcha (Unicode, Jet behavior, bad indices,
etc.)
- Speed/Variable Declaration tradeoffs encourage large subroutines
Conclusion: For me, Access won't face any serious competition for some
time.
James A. Fortune
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