What should I do for distribution?

[Ron]

Hi Everyone.

Okay, I'm beginning to think about what I should do about distributing my
new program to my clients once it's more polished. I wrote my existing
program in dbase/switched to Foxpro and it's still in DOS. So, you can
probably see I've had a bit of a learning curve to overcome. I'm not too
unhappy with the program so far--it's not ready for prime-time of course.
But it will be.

Now I need to consider what to use to distribute this baby. Unfortunately,
the Access 2000 I've been using for this is off the Office Pro version. I
upgraded many years ago from the Office 97 Pro version. So, I don't have
any of the "developer" software to be able to utilize the runtime stuff. It
just doesn't seem to make sense to require all my clients to scamper out and
find an old copy of Access to install, ya know?

Should I bite the bullet and upgrade to Office 2003 and then get the Visual
Studio Tools for Office for the runtime or locate an older version of 2000
developer (I've bid on one on ebay but lost out by about $25--it went up to
$525--USED! Can you believe it?). I hesitate on spending that kind of
money on an "old" version, when I can buy all the new, current stuff for
almost the same amount with the upgrades to the Office and all.

Does it make sense to stay with older versions if I have to buy whatever I'm
going to use? IOW, is there something about 2000 that's better than 2002,
or 2003?

Anyone who's distributed in both versions have an opinion that one is
better/worse than another? And why?

TIA
ron

[Bob Darlington]

Ron,
For what its worth, I still distribute an A97 application using th 97 ODE
(creates runtime), but for my new apps, I've decided to require users to
purchase Access2003. Most of them have some version of Office installed
anyway, and the upgrade cost isn't that high (compared with the cost of my
app).
Depends though on the pricing of your app and the nature of the user.
I just got fed up with the ever increasing cost to by the MS developer
software, and the fact that it isn't all that easy to use.

--
Bob Darlington
Brisbane
"Ron" <ro*******************@earthlink.com> wrote in message
news:Ss*****************@newsread1.news.pas.earthl ink.net...

Hi Everyone.

Okay, I'm beginning to think about what I should do about distributing my
new program to my clients once it's more polished. I wrote my existing
program in dbase/switched to Foxpro and it's still in DOS. So, you can
probably see I've had a bit of a learning curve to overcome. I'm not too
unhappy with the program so far--it's not ready for prime-time of course.
But it will be.

Now I need to consider what to use to distribute this baby. Unfortunately, the Access 2000 I've been using for this is off the Office Pro version. I
upgraded many years ago from the Office 97 Pro version. So, I don't have
any of the "developer" software to be able to utilize the runtime stuff. It just doesn't seem to make sense to require all my clients to scamper out and find an old copy of Access to install, ya know?

Should I bite the bullet and upgrade to Office 2003 and then get the Visual Studio Tools for Office for the runtime or locate an older version of 2000
developer (I've bid on one on ebay but lost out by about $25--it went up to $525--USED! Can you believe it?). I hesitate on spending that kind of
money on an "old" version, when I can buy all the new, current stuff for
almost the same amount with the upgrades to the Office and all.

Does it make sense to stay with older versions if I have to buy whatever I'm going to use? IOW, is there something about 2000 that's better than 2002,
or 2003?

Anyone who's distributed in both versions have an opinion that one is
better/worse than another? And why?

TIA
ron