Microsoft Cleanliness

I guess I've been working with A97 too long. That program seemed cleaner than A2003.

Used to be, in A97, you'd have tabs at the top to select what you wanted to work with; table, query, form, etc. In A2000, MS for some unknown reason decided to move the tabs to the side. In the database window they added a couple of wizards to clutter it up instead of . Then they moved the Open/Design/New to the top instead of the right side. I guess MS did this because they were bored, needed to justify their groups existence, and decided to waste developers time by playing with the developer's mind.

See, this required a rewrite of code for them. They couldn't fix a couple of simple things that to make a developer's life simpler without going overboard. For example, select Forms/New/Wizard. Up pops a dropdown of tables and queries and then the field list. Of course, the dropdown has only 1 column. To make it more difficult, MS preceeds each table with the word TABLE and each query with "QUERY". As if I care. Make Table or Query a second column. I guess MS programmers have never heard a dropdown can have more than one column.

Now go and drop a combo box on a form. Somebody at MS had common sense at one time and allowed you to select from Table, Query, or both in A97. It simply had the table/query name. No excess garbage. But the folks needed to muck that up in A2000+ as well by adding Query or Table in front of the Query/Table name. Hello! MS? Ever hear of 2 or more columns?

Or let's say you create a new database and want to import some objects. Make sure the import window can't be resized. And of course don't provide the modified/created dates to the users. The dates are usually totally useless since A2000 because everytime you recompile the remove all history. They could fix this by adding another date column. This indicates MS coders have never worked on an application. It also indicates they take the easy way out and instead of adding some functionality decide that that extra 15 minutes of coding will cut into their nap time.

Open up 2 or more modules. Click on Window. Your current window is clean but they have to add the database name and window name for any other open windows. Why? Who cares? Why does more garbage make something better, MS?

And of course leave out a FileOpen dialog box function in all versions. Didn't that exist in VB1? It did in FoxPro DOS. Of course, MS must assume Access applications are designed by DFUs, not developers.

Where does MS hire their programmers? In the interview process do they see if the person can make a mountain out of a molehill, a simple process more complex? Does MS cry Eureka! when they find such a coder?

I think MS likes drones and order takers for their coders. They certainly don't have creative people that can say "Hey, if we implemented this feature it would help out the people that use this product." Nope. "Hey, here's the specs. Don't think. Just code." That's the MS way.

MS used to have a "wish list" area you could send them your ideas. That must be a big ciruclar file called BWAHAHAHAHAHA. The MVPs either have no say on what can be simple fixes for MS or they're used to mundanity. The book writers of MS products probably have the most input on the development process and feature list.

MS should hire a a person that's worked on Access application and help direct their pie-in-the-sky, ivory tower dreams and get them focused back into reality. Get rid of the FOC (fresh out of college morons) and get someone that has worked outside of their world and has been required to use some imagination.

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Microsoft Cleanliness
    ... In the database window they added a couple of wizards to clutter it up instead of. ... MS preceeds each table with the word TABLE and each query with "QUERY". ... Somebody at MS had common sense at one time and allowed you to select from Table, Query, or both in A97. ...
    (comp.databases.ms-access)
  • Re: Microsoft Cleanliness
    ... Used to be, in A97, you'd have tabs at the top to select what you wanted ... word TABLE and each query with "QUERY". ... Make sure the import window can't be resized. ... I'd gotten used to have a separate place for the code modules, ...
    (comp.databases.ms-access)
  • Re: Microsoft Cleanliness
    ... it makes a LOT of sense to have the name of the application added to the window. ... report, ... I've always thought it odd they gave those features to forms in A97 but not reports. ... developers, and I can't begin to imagine going back to a97 with the features that I use on a day to day bases in a2003. ...
    (comp.databases.ms-access)
  • Re: Mailmerge from Access
    ... Query linked to the Access db. ... > manipulate the z-order (i.e. which window in front of which) will work. ... >> So the problem is that the queries parameter window opens up first, ...
    (microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields)
  • Re: first attempt at a report - HELP!
    ... Select the Modules tab in the Database window, ... Paste the code below into the Code window, ... Create a new query containing both tblDate and your other table. ... >> Now to use the query in the report. ...
    (microsoft.public.access.reports)