Comments on: Access: Why not?

By: Mark W. Schumann

Mark W. Schumann — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:59:50 +0000

Good idea, Hugo. Obviously the overhead can be deadly if you have more than a little data, but if you designed the thing right it should be easy to upgrade to a real database when necessary.

By: webdev_hb

webdev_hb — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:54:58 +0000

On smaller scale projects I’ve found that using LINQ with XML files to be a sufficient solution – Doesn’t require any additional software to be installed and works very well.

By: Tweets that mention Access: Why not? « Critical Results -- Topsy.com

Tweets that mention Access: Why not? « Critical Results -- Topsy.com — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:35:56 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mark W. Schumann and Mark W. Schumann, Ezra Brooks. Ezra Brooks said: RT @MarkWSchumann: Yesterday's still-fresh blogginess: Why NOT just use MS Access in your .NET development project? http://bit.ly/66nR8a [...]

By: Mark W. Schumann

Mark W. Schumann — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:53:40 +0000

Thank you for your comment, Eric.

If it were only about cost of acquisition, I’d totally agree. I tend to look at a combination of cost, technical merit, low admin overhead, and ability to fit into the customer’s existing infrastructure and mental model.

As an extreme example, I used to work in an IBM System/38 shop. I developed plenty of applications that “should” have been done in C for all kinds of reasons, but it was a ’38 shop. We just didn’t have C… or getting it would have meant fitting a PC with an SNA interface card and… oh geez, now I’m getting a headache.

We ended up abusing RPG III in horrible ways, because it was there and C wasn’t. (Man, now I’m telling war stories. Sorry.)

This current application, and a few others I’ve dealt with, have been in Access Shops. It’s nice to integrate that cleanly with what they understand and are aleady using.

By: -e

-e — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:52:05 +0000

SQL Server Express or Compact Edition. SQLite. MySQL. Cost is never a reason to use Access. Nor is the fact that you are confined to running only on the client. We all know applications tend to live on longer than we expect, so you’ll be maintaining an Access solution sometime into the 2020′s wondering why you ever used Access. Don’t. You’ll regret it.

Also, many editions of Office come without Access…