Access vs VB

[XMan]

I've learned to program in Access recently. Most of my background is with Java and C and Powerbuilder. I like it so far. The one feature I really miss is inheritance. Access doesn't have it with forms. PB does with windows. Is there somewhere got a comparison between Access and VB? I don't know much about VB and want to pick up another language. How different is VB from Access? TIA.

 

[Rick Brandt]

I've learned to program in Access recently. Most of my background is with Java and C and Powerbuilder. I like it so far. The one feature I really miss is inheritance. Access doesn't have it with forms. PB does with windows. Is there somewhere got a comparison between Access and VB? I don't know much about VB and want to pick up another language. How different is VB from Access? TIA.
The "Language" is the same. The object model however is quite different.

As long as the app is data-driven the advantages of Acces forms over VB more than make up for the lack of inheritance. Access forms have a myriad of events and properties specifically geared for dealing with data almost none of which exist in a VB form.

 

[Albert D. Kallal]

You can read my article on using class objects in ms-access at:

http://www.attcanada.net/~kallal.msn/Articles/WhyClass.html

You can most certainly have multiple instances of the same form in
ms-access. But, no inheritance exists.

You might also note that also any function declared as pubic in a forms
module becomes a "method" of that form object, and you can then use it like:

frmMyForm.MyRefresh

The above would call the function MyRefresh if it is public.

So, we get in practice:
forms!YourForm.YourMethod

Or, if you want to soft code the form name, we get:

forms(strFormName).YourMethod

So, you can add methods to a form, and have those methods call code in a
general module, or even have that code use other class objects.

And, if you are looking for a new language to learn, why not VB.net? There
is VB6, but that is a few years old, and no new versions are coming out. So,
if you need VB like development, you can use ms-access. If you want
something with more OO, then vb.net would be the choice here.

 

[XMan]

I'm having fun with it so far. Coming from Java tools, I really appreciate the db integrated features. I can whip out db apps fast...much faster than with Java.
I've learned to program in Access recently. Most of my background is with Java and C and Powerbuilder. I like it so far. The one feature I really miss is inheritance. Access doesn't have it with forms. PB does with windows. Is there somewhere got a comparison between Access and VB? I don't know much about VB and want to pick up another language. How different is VB from Access? TIA.
The "Language" is the same. The object model however is quite different.

As long as the app is data-driven the advantages of Acces forms over VB more than make up for the lack of inheritance. Access forms have a myriad of events and properties specifically geared for dealing with data almost none of which exist in a VB form.

 

[Michel Walsh]

Hi,


You can use sub-form (the control in the parent form has a property,
SourceObject, that can be changed at run-time to change the sub-form as you
wish), which is the closest thing similar to graphical inheritance. You can
also use implements, which is a form of inheritance.

For a classical "text" database, Access is probably a better platform
than VB, but VB is a general language (as example, if you have lot a
drawings dynamically generated at run time, your are better in VB). If you
know already Java, you may wish to take a look at C#... it is not always up
to classic VB/C++ for desktop applications, but rumors are that a new
version may deliver comparable performance... but sure, Microsoft make a lot
of investments on dot-Net platform (and C#), so, someone may think it would
be a language of the future.



Vanderghast, Access MVP



I've learned to program in Access recently. Most of my background is with
Java and C and Powerbuilder. I like it so far. The one feature I really miss
is inheritance. Access doesn't have it with forms. PB does with windows. Is
there somewhere got a comparison between Access and VB? I don't know much
about VB and want to pick up another language. How different is VB from
Access? TIA.