Re: Microsoft Cleanliness

"Salad" <oil@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:13liot3nn259pa8@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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

I guess this is a situation of not willing to learn anything new?

Stuck in a rut are we?

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.

I suppose you could use two columns, then on the other hand it would
actually use up more room. Funny, you stand here and talk about not having
enough room for some displays, and are now proposing and design here that
takes up more room? Which way do exactly what this to go?


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?

Once again you've obviously not used a computer with extra memory or
processing. Of course people like you with limited vision would never have
two or even perhaps three copies of MS access open at the same time (too
much for your brain?)?

Furthermore, you are aware that you can go to tools, and select windows in
taskbar settings. When you do this if you have three forms open in design
mode, then you see 3 entries in the task bar. So, it makes a LOT of sense to
have the name of the application added to the window.

By the way, in case you missed some bus for learning more about office,
word, and excel were also changed as a result of this interface. Most people
prefer having extra entries in the task bar, and not windows as a child.
This is actually a move away from the midi interface. However, no sweat on
your part, you can turn off the "windows in task bar" if you want.

Having the database + module name in the window is a MUST have today when we
can routinely open and run several copies of ms-access at the same time. The
sad part is that you can't even figure out why such a feature is needed...


And of course leave out a FileOpen dialog box function in all versions.

They did? there's a wonderful acronym in our industry and it's called RTFM.

in a2003 try:

Dim f As FileDialog
Set f = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFilePicker)
f.Show
MsgBox "file choose was " & f.SelectedItems(1)


Note that the above dialog also supports stuff like multi-select

eg:

Dim f As FileDialog
Set f = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFilePicker)
f.AllowMultiSelect = True
f.Show

MsgBox "file choosen = " & f.SelectedItems.Count
MsgBox "1 st file choose was " & f.SelectedItems(1)

Didn't that exist in VB1? It did in FoxPro DOS. Of course, MS must
assume Access applications are designed by DFUs, not developers.

As I said, it is built in, but if your like the horse that we lead to water,
I can't make you drink the water once you get there.


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.

Oh, really? Try going:

help->contact us.

The above will lead you to help page, and there even a send comments and
suggestions option on that web page.

Furthermore, they do listen to suggestions.

Let take a quick little walk through of the new features in access
2003...

Keep in mind, I forgetting a TON of things here..but, lets try a few:

A few things that are the direct result of requests:

Enhanced font capabilities in SQL views

The above is great, as I now use nice big courier font when editing sql.
*VERY* nice.

Furthermore, there is context help is available while in sql. In other
words, not only does the cursor move to the "correct" position in the sql,
you can hit the help key in the sql, and you get context sensitive help for
sql now.

So, from a developer point of view, we can change the font, and also get
help. This is REALLY nice, and about time!


Error checking in forms and reports

In Access 2003, you can enable automatic
error checking for common errors in forms and reports.
Error checking points out errors, such as two controls
using the same keyboard shortcut, and the width of a report
being greater than the page it will be printed on.
Enabling error checking helps you identify errors and
correct them.

The above is quite nice, and you can instantly see un-bound controls in a
report, or form in design mode. I *very* much like this feature.

Windows XP theme support

The above is nice also, and here is a set of screen shots that shows what
forms look like:

http://www.members.shaw.ca/AlbertKallal/Atheme/index.htm

More developer options include the ability to right click on a object and
view dependencies. Thus you can view objects that the query depends on, or
what objects use the query.

Furthermore, the openReprot has been extended to have "openargs" and allows
you to set the report as model. So, it now follows the same format as
openform (they have symmetry now). I can't tell you how many times I wanted
openArgs for a report (and, having model settings for the report is also
nice). Now we have this feature.

There is a lot of other stuff for developers. For example, from the debug
window try:

? currentproject.Path
->>C:\Documents and Settings\Albert\My Documents\Access

The above gives you the current database path name (without the mdb file).
And, also:

? currentproject.Name
->>Answersxp.mdb

Note how the above gives you the current mdb name *without* the path. This
saves "tons" of parsing.

Speaking of parsing, in the old days, how would you parse out the last of a
file name like:

s = http://www.mvps.org/access/api/index.html";

How do you parse out the last file of "index.html" in a97?

in a2003, try:

? mid(s,instrRev(s,"/")+ 1)
-->index.html

Furthermore, we also have the "replace" function in code, and I use that all
the time.

Lets also not forget the split() command.

t = "SERV: PS NJ////SAR #155097#//OH #08468////"

In the above, I want to pull out the number after the word "SAR " , it can
be anywhere in the string..but then I want the number after (with the "#"
removed:

Dim t As String
t = "SERV: PS NJ////SAR #155097#//OH #08468////"

Debug.Print Split(Split(t, "sar ")(1), "#")(1)

The above will produce:

-->>155097

care to post your a97 solution for parsing the above???

I really could type on for a lot more here, and mention stuff like XML
support etc.

Furthermore, conditional formatting is WONDERFUL...and I use that often in
continues forms.

The add-in for source code control is now a free download for a2003.

And, things like the ability to print the relationships window is nice.

Another common request was record locking, and we have that now.

Being able to edit code independent of forms in design mode, and not get
stuck in a model form like a97 during form design is a huge change. And,
this means you can well better use two monitors during the development
process. (oh, right...that too much for you).

Suffice to say that a LOT of features are the result of requests by
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.

I used both for years, and after some time....going back to a97 will be
painful....

--
Albert D. Kallal (Access MVP)
Edmonton, Alberta Canada
pleaseNOOSpamKallal@xxxxxxx


.

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