Very unhappy front end developer looking for advices

[Atlas]

I've almost completed a small project with MS SQL 2000 server in the BE and
Access 2003 in the FE. 5 concurrent users, 30 tables, 35 forms and subforms,
13 reports.
Not so happy in the beginning as soon as Access Event Model was shown
(Crappy at minimum, even compared with not-anymore-existant tools), very
unhappy when the project is almost completed.

Main concerns:
- User interface VERY slow (UI redraw on not so complex forms, don't talk
about conditional formatting, unstable and...bah!!!!)
- Too many bugs IMHO for a 4th generation product
- Lack of basic features (record hilight, formatting......)
- Crashes
- Slow even when running queries on server side (Stored procedures).
- Advanced techniques requires you being an acrobat.

That is ,I'm seriuosly thinking of REWRITING the whole project, using the
existing DB structure, looking for a seriuos development tool and
environment. I remember of Borland Paradox 7 for Windows. Ten years ago it
had a far superior event model, no bugs, speed and many limits yes, but
we're talking about a ten years old product. If only Borland continued
improving and enahnce that product.....

Anyhow back to present..... any advice?

[Eduard]

I'd never even think of access as being a development tool. Especially when
just using the front end. What's wrong with creating the font end in C# or
VB (which is the 'rich' version of the vba u used in Access).
Much more controls : Thus possibilities (yes, it includes record
highlighting ;-)
Check ORM.NET for a complete datalayer between your application and your
database. Programming really gets drag & drop. I'd recommend VS.NET as
development tool.
Good luck!

"Atlas" <at*******@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:11*************@news.supernews.com...

I've almost completed a small project with MS SQL 2000 server in the BE
and Access 2003 in the FE. 5 concurrent users, 30 tables, 35 forms and
subforms, 13 reports.
Not so happy in the beginning as soon as Access Event Model was shown
(Crappy at minimum, even compared with not-anymore-existant tools), very
unhappy when the project is almost completed.

Main concerns:
- User interface VERY slow (UI redraw on not so complex forms, don't talk
about conditional formatting, unstable and...bah!!!!)
- Too many bugs IMHO for a 4th generation product
- Lack of basic features (record hilight, formatting......)
- Crashes
- Slow even when running queries on server side (Stored procedures).
- Advanced techniques requires you being an acrobat.

That is ,I'm seriuosly thinking of REWRITING the whole project, using the
existing DB structure, looking for a seriuos development tool and
environment. I remember of Borland Paradox 7 for Windows. Ten years ago it
had a far superior event model, no bugs, speed and many limits yes, but
we're talking about a ten years old product. If only Borland continued
improving and enahnce that product.....

Anyhow back to present..... any advice?

[David Portas]

Have you considered .NET?

- Slow even when running queries on server side (Stored procedures).

How do you know that's Access's fault? Did you test that code
independtly of Access using Query Analyzer?

--
David Portas
SQL Server MVP
--

[Ryan]

Paradox ? Wouldn't touch it with a barge-pole mate. I used it for 5
years and found it was unreliable and too many problems to be a useful
tool. I used it extensively and ran a support team using Paradox as the
back end. It was terrible and I would rather use MS Access as the BE.
Table corruption was a common problem and we were forever re-building
the table and indexes to sort out the problems. I'm not sure what your
asking of an MS-SQL group, but SQL will provide a much more stable BE
than Paradox or Access. I'd suggest looking at the front end as it does
seem that this may be where you problems lie.

[Atlas]

I was talking about the event model, not the Back End. Fairly simple running
it on a single computer. Obvious. But far superior event model.

"Ryan" <ry********@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:11*********************@g14g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...

Paradox ? Wouldn't touch it with a barge-pole mate. I used it for 5
years and found it was unreliable and too many problems to be a useful
tool. I used it extensively and ran a support team using Paradox as the
back end. It was terrible and I would rather use MS Access as the BE.
Table corruption was a common problem and we were forever re-building
the table and indexes to sort out the problems. I'm not sure what your
asking of an MS-SQL group, but SQL will provide a much more stable BE
than Paradox or Access. I'd suggest looking at the front end as it does
seem that this may be where you problems lie.