15+ Years of Romance with Microsoft Access

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been doing some work in Access 2007. This product has come along way since the early days. 

I actually remember when I did my first Access 1.0 project. I had been working in the Paradox for DOS world (3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5) and all of us database developers were starting to think about the transistion to Windows. At that time, Windows was still new on the corporate scene. It required fast computers (386 with atleast 2 to 4 megabytes of RAM :-) and even then these Windows databases were slow. Many of us were trying to figure out the next step for us: Stick with Paradox on Windows, or move to its competitors: Microsoft Access, FoxPro and a few others.

The thing that sold me on Access was VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). At the time it was called AccessBasic, but was very similar to Visual Basic for Windows. The second thing is Microsoft had a solid vision: all future version of Office applications would support VBA. We were sold! Learn VBA in one product, and then all you had to do was learn the object model of another application to be productive. Of course, it took many years for this vision to become a reality, but it did!

By the time Access 2.0 rolled around, Access was the clear winner on the Windows desktop for database development. 

As I started to work on some of my recent projects, I began to reflect on what made Access so succesful. It must have been more than just VBA right? Of course! My love for VBA reveals my nature as a programmer. Always thinking about the development possiblities.

While VBA was a big help, what made Access so good is that the average user could create amazing applications. Over the years I have seen people with no programming skills create database in Access used by entire departments that manage multi-billion dollar businesses and also by people at home to manage their own little interests and hobbies. Some developers really dislike that Access was used by “non-programmers” and for many reasons (a.ka. IT department support nightmares). However, I think its wonderful. Access unlocked the creative genius of the average person. 

Here are some of the reason I think Access was successful:

The “Runtime”: Microsoft bundled Access with Office. This put Office on desktops of most users. This made it easy then to develop and distribute a solution. (Today MS has put the .NET framework on almost every windows PC. In the early days of Access, Access was the RUNTIME!)

All things to all people: Access has a unique blend of database components, programming components and presentation components (forms, reports). Its not just a database engine. Its not just a programming langauge. It not just a reporting tool. Its a hybrid of all of these. 

Office familiarity: While Access was a strange new beast for most computer users, it was housed in a familiar environment. It used the same menu, toolbar, help and programming  sub-system as all the other Office environments. If you had acquired basic skills in Word or Excel, you already knew 20% of what was need to work with Access. This greatly reduced the pain. On the contrary, if you tried to use Paradox for Windows, you had to learn everything from ground zero. What a pain!

I am sure there are many other reasons. What do you think?

Do you ever write an article and think you just aged yourself drastically in the eyes of your readers? :-)

One more thought before you leave:

I often found in some large corporation in a department that generated millions of dollars of revenue. They used a small database to track their product and customers. The database was developed by the department secretary, and now everyone used it and they couldnt survive without it.

Granted, the database she created was visually unappealing, broke many normalization and development rules. But! it worked! That is what mattered. By the time I was called in, they realized they needed profesional help to take the database to a new level. However, not only had they successfully managed their business, but in effect her databased functioned as a working prototype that showed us how their business operated and how a desktop application could further help.

Genius!