Re: Access 07 Contemplations

On 6 Ott, 10:10, g...@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
I would like to share (vent?) some of my frustrations with regard to
Access07. I do like Access and think it is a great program but think
there is much more potential in the program that I can not enjoy
because of general policy of the Access team and the direction they
are taking with the program.
I saw a TV show a couple of days ago which made me think of Access07
and how it has been developed over the years. I want to use this show
in order to help me explain my points. The show was about a restaurant
that was changing ownership. The new owners received the restaurant
with its previous work force, its menu, and existing clientele. They
wanted to increase the number of customers, but didn't want to
jeopardize the revenue coming from the existing regulars. On the other
hand they wanted to be careful so as not to end up without either the
previous or the new customers. Even if you can get new customers,
previous customers are still important also because they sometimes
bring others and also they keep the business running.

The new restaurant owners were successful because they decided on the
following:

- They did not remove items from the existing menu so as not to upset
the current regular customers.

- They added new items to the menu only after these were ready and
they were able to provide the dishes appropriately, if these were to
be ordered.

These simple principles were also used for changes in other aspects of
the business.

How does this differ from the Access07 policy?
Well, in my view, "restaurant menu items" have been introduced and
removed without much consideration of the effect on clients using
them.

Here are a few recent examples. These are only the main issues that I
personally find discomforting in version 2007:

- Navigation Pane as a substitute for the old Database window (see
discussion here:http://blogs.msdn.com/access/archive/2007/10/03/sorting-nav-pane-obje...)

-The security being removed

-The introduction of ribbons not ready to be "served" because they do
not have an easy user interface to implement them. (I need to learn a
new language to implement them and I don't like how they hoard screen
resources. I want and need the previous toolbar scheme.)

-The removal of the interface to handle the toolbars.

-The terrible inconvenience when running the 07 runtime on a machine
with Office 03 installed (an extremely likely scenario). The office CD
needed each time the application is run? (see discussion at bottom of
page here:http://blogs.msdn.com/access/archive/2007/09/27/ribbon-customization-...)
This issue is really a killer as far as deployment goes.

-Package and Deploy wizard is provided free, but is it a ready "dish"?
I wonder who will ever use this feature since it provides no way of
marking files as 'never overwrite' or 'always overwrite'. For me this
renders the feature as completely useless.

And there are many more issues, as described here:http://allenbrowne.com/Access2007.html
Over the years there were similar issues in previous versions as well.

I can't really know what is going on behind the doors of those
developing Access, so from my point of view I can only guess. But I
get the feeling that to them it is a kind of game. They want to be
creative and add features and remove them to serve their own
creativity whims. It is fun. They don't really stop to think of
consequences to developers. If they were the restaurant owners they
would probably say: "This dish tastes good, it tastes better then the
previous one, so let's just replace them. The customers will have to
follow because we know what tastes better. It is not ready yet? Well,
in the next menu it will be great." I wonder how many regular
restaurant visitors they would have been able to maintain.

As a customer, I like the renovations, improvements and additions of
new features. Some of these are really great, but only if they don't
come at the expense of the existing features, only if they are ready,
and only if I am given a choice to keep using the previous ones they
are supposed to replace. But for someone playing a game, giving me a
choice is a compromise and it seems to me the Access team is not
willing to compromise their creativity in the favor of more stability
to the product. That would be too boring.

I keep hoping that maybe in the next version things will be more
stable, but then the next version comes out and again I am frustrated
and need to build hope for the next one. I am tired of promises about
the next versions.

I have been hoping to be able to deploy an application I have been
working on for a long time now. I am too afraid to do so because of
the issues pointed above and others. It is all nice and well for
someone that uses their own application, or someone that can afford to
provide a lot of on site support to users of their application. But
for deploying my application out to the big world using the internet,
it is very problematic.

What is so frustrating is that the stability I need in the product
doesn't seem so far fetched. It seems to me to be just another
marginal effort that needs to be exerted by the Access team, but an
extremely boring one at that. I want the toolbars back. I want the 07
runtime to be able to run on machines with 2003 without causing the
user to want to poison me. I want the choice of developing ribbons
with an easy user interface or the choice of not using or at least
minimizing their size. I want security. I want improved deployment. As
I continue to develop my applications, I want to easily deploy the
upgrades to my users via Internet, preferably with minimal effort on
their part, if any (This will help Access compete with Internet
applications that have no deployment problems at all since all a user
needs is a browser.) All these issues seem to hold back the Access
innovation and developement, but these are some of the things that I
need, and I expect many others like me need them too. But these are
mostly maintenance issues so why bother?

Sorry for being so negative. I actually do like Access very much and
there are no other "restaurants" like it out there. Maybe that is why
the Access team doesn't really make the compromises they need to, in
order to keep the existing clientele. Clients just have no where else
to go.

Just my 2 cents
Please have the next version more complete and less something that
looks lika a work in progress under construction.

Sometimes, product excellence creates a sort of "monopolistic"
situation.

It is great when those who are achieving such a tech excellence
continue behaving like if there were lots of competitors around, and
treasure
their clients.

-P
----------------------------------------
Datatime Reporting Solution [for Access, etc, Free]
http://www.datatime.eu/DataTimeUniversal.htm

.

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