Re: Access to Visual Basic Conversion???

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From: Albert D. Kallal (PleaseNOOOsPAMMkallal_at_msn.com)
Date: 10/19/04 

Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 13:46:20 -0600

"Brian" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:139301c4b5ef$ae0a2c50$a501280a@phx.gbl...

>This database consists of an
> Access front end with 33 queries, 101 forms, 51 reports,
> and 24 modules using an Access back end with 49 tables.

That is not really a very big application at all. I have produced
applications
with 160 forms, 73 reports, and 181 queries in less then 3 months.
And, there is 27,000 lines of code. So, applications in the 75 to 175 range
are kind of "medium" sized. I always consider applications with over 200
forms
starting to get large. On the other hand, I tend to use a lot of forms for
user interface stuff. You can seem some examples of what I mean here:

http://www.attcanada.net/~kallal.msn/Search/index.html

And, for all reports, I also tend to use additional forms:
http://www.attcanada.net/~kallal.msn/ridesrpt/ridesrpt.html

And, since your application is starting to have a lot of features...then
likely
you have incorporated menus...right? Here is some good examples:
http://www.attcanada.net/~kallal.msn/Articles/UseAbility/UserFriendly.htm

On a typical developer team, developer output can vary as much as 100 times.
So, a good developer in 5 days of work can actually output 50 or more days
of
work that "average" developers can produce. I have meet developers who on a
average day can produce more then 1000 lines of c++ code per day!!

Right now, the resulting above mde is about 6 megs in size, and as mde can
be
zipped into 1.5 megs (it *almost* fits on a floppy disk). So, it not very
big in terms of what large ms-access applications look like.

>
> I am now at the point where I am starting a project to
> convert the front end to Visual Basic

Why do you need to convert the application to VB? VB does not have a report
writer that is much good. Also, are you trying to convert to VB.net? (you
are not clear here?). You mention a VB converter tool, and then go on to
mention VB.net? (which are you trying to convert to?). Converting the
application to VB will not get you a easy path to converting to VB.net.

I guess the real question here is why do you need to convert the front end
to VB? You can most certainly convert the back end data part to sql server,
and this is common setup with ms-access (ms-access makes a great front end
to sql server).

So, again, is the goal to use sql server here? (do you need sql server
here?). Perhaps your goal is to both convert to VB (don't know why you need
to do this), and another goal is to use sql server? You can most certainly
use the up-sizing wizard to move the tables to sql sever, and *most* code
should continue to work.

Since VB, and VB.net don't have things like continues forms, and those
environments also don't have the concept of a sub-form, and those tools
don't have multi-column combo boxes (and don't have things like not in list
event), then many "concepts" and design ideas you used will not easily
convert to these environments. And, what do you plan to use for a report
writer?

So, when starting to use a new environments, the designs, the philosophy and
approach to problem solving will be quite different,a nd thus a automated
converting is difficult.

Obviously, your good designs were based on having ms-access as the
development tool. Many of the designs, and how things work would have been
done differently if you were using VB, or vb.net.

Anyway, I guess you need to define the whats, whys etc as to the need to
convert to vb. (I see few, if any advantages gained by converting to vb at
this point -- there are often some good reasons to convert from ms-access to
vb...but it is not clear if these apply to you.). I guess only you can make
this decision.

VB does distribuite somwhat easer then ms-access. However, you *can* build a
reasonalbe stand alone royally free install of a ms-access application. 

-- 
Albert D. Kallal   (Access MVP)
Edmonton, Alberta Canada
pleaseNOOSpamKallal@msn.com
http://www.attcanada.net/~kallal.msn

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