| re: Strawman: Is MS Access a "database"?
"(Pete Cresswell)" <x@y.z> wrote in message
news:nu9u701u388p087vh0ju1vt7itak8dpcsb@4ax.com...[color=blue]
> I would argue that it is not.
>
> JET is a desktop DB engine.
> Sybase is a database
> Oracle is a database
> DB2 is a database.
>
> VB 6 is a front-end development tool.
> PowerBuilder is a front-end development tool.
> MS Access is a front end devlopment tool.
>
> ---------------------------------------
> What's got me going on this is that I keep hearing statements like "What!
> you're running a mission-critical application out of an Access database?"
> Or the latest, to the effect of, "Well, sure the app has been working a-ok[/color]
for[color=blue]
> the past five years, but would you want people reading in the Wall Street
> Journal that your client is managing 65 billion dollars worth of mutual funds
> with an Access database?".
>
> Well, "No", and "No". The back end is Sybase. The FRONT end is MS Access[/color]
and[color=blue]
> there is no such thing as an MS Access database.
>
> Am I off-base in saying to myself when I hear some self-styled IT expert talk
> about "Access databases" that that guy doesn't know what he's talking about?
>
> Or is it me?
> ----------------------------------------[/color]
The line is blurry because a "Jet database" resides in what just about everyone
would describe as an "Access File". I say that because in general terms when
one asks "what kind of file is that?", what they mean is "what program would I
use to open it?". While you can create an MDB without Access and use one
without Access, you pretty much need Access if you want to open it and poke
around (and I don't mean programmatically).
If MS had from day one set Access up to be an "always split" model with
different file extensions for the front end and Jet file then I think this would
have fostered a different perception. Frankly I don't worry about it too much.
I do stuff in Access, Java, Delphi, etc., and when people ask me about a project
I ask them "You want that in a month or do you want me to use Access?"
--
I don't check the Email account attached
to this message. Send instead to...
RBrandt at Hunter dot com
| 
