Access - dotnet comparison

[Peter Ramsebner]

Hi all,

I have an old app (its a relativ small app) in acc-dao-msde (odbc) which i
would like to reprogram for distributing 10-100 times.
Now i should decide the platform i will use for the development:
Access2000/XP - ADO - MSDE or dotNETvb

If i use Access i will need about 100 hours.
dotNet i have to learn first.

- What are the adavantages/disadvantages using dotNET?
- to create reports i have to buy cristal report or something similar?
- in dotNet there are no subforms and no endlessforms?
- The development costs (time, tools) for dotNET are quit higher than in
access?
- developing / distributing an app: which platform produce more headache


thanks in advance for your ideas

Peter

 

[William Ryan]

MSDE for sure. Dotnet is very powerful and there are tons of good books and
internet sites with tons of code. The IDE alone makes development easier.
You have a lot more control over exceptions, you can create windows services
easily, take your classes and have ASP.NET natively understand them ......

Crystal comes free with Pro and it's very easy to use. I hate the fact that
you don't have the autoviewer in crystal (or if you do, I haven't figured
out how it works) in design mode...but it's really simple to use.

Also, you can peg Crystal to all sorts of data srouces, like XML, so you
have tremendous flexibility to switch from Access/MSDE or antying else.

The costs may be higher, but the Productivity gains will more than offset
them.

Deploying an APP is a breeze. You can even do No Touch deployment which
means that your app can look to your website or network share and autoupdate
everything without your intervention.

IMHO, the only question is really how to go about the switch, not whehter or
not to do it.

If you have any more questiosn, let me know.

Cheers,

Bill

 

[Peter Ramsebner]

Thanks Bill,

at the moment fine

Peter

MSDE for sure. Dotnet is very powerful and there are tons of good books and
internet sites with tons of code. The IDE alone makes development easier.
You have a lot more control over exceptions, you can create windows services
easily, take your classes and have ASP.NET natively understand them ......

Crystal comes free with Pro and it's very easy to use. I hate the fact that
you don't have the autoviewer in crystal (or if you do, I haven't figured
out how it works) in design mode...but it's really simple to use.

Also, you can peg Crystal to all sorts of data srouces, like XML, so you
have tremendous flexibility to switch from Access/MSDE or antying else.

The costs may be higher, but the Productivity gains will more than offset
them.

Deploying an APP is a breeze. You can even do No Touch deployment which
means that your app can look to your website or network share and autoupdate
everything without your intervention.

IMHO, the only question is really how to go about the switch, not whehter or
not to do it.

If you have any more questiosn, let me know.

Cheers,

Bill