Why does MS write such crap software?

[Shaun @ Tru6]

We built a custom order entry and invoicing application for our company in MS Access. On the whole, it's great. Try to edit reports, however, and it becomes dreadfully slow, meaning you can click on a control and it will take 10+ seconds for the control to show being selected. Once selected, you can hit an arrow key and it will take 10 seconds to move.

Why?

Because network printer was selected as the default.

How the f can network printer being selected as the default make designing reports extremely slow?

[krystar]

Originally Posted by Shaun 84 Targa

We built a custom order entry and invoicing application for our company in MS Access.

stop. do not pass go. do not collect $200. nobody writes access applications anymore. that's so 1995. access was never meant to be an application platform. it was for simple databasing and reporting.

[id10t]

Because Access being "helpful" will interrogate your printer to find out what capabilities it has for when you print said reports.

Install CutePDF (both Free and free) and set the pdf printer to be your default, it should fix your problem.

[id10t]

Originally Posted by krystar

stop. do not pass go. do not collect $200. nobody writes access applications anymore. that's so 1995. access was never meant to be an application platform. it was for simple databasing and reporting.

If you *must* use MS stuff, and you have a MS SQL server available, Access makes a great front end for pulling reports, etc. as an "application" with the "real" SQL server in the background...

As a stand alone product, you are right

[krystar]

for databasing, ms sql server express is free!

and that application of yours will most likely still work great after u remap the datasource to sql server express

Download: Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 SP1 - Express Edition - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details

[John Rogers]

The app part of the Access database has to check across the network every time it wants to do something. Access is NOT meant to be a network based database system, but a beginning system to get you started and then have you move to DB2, SQL Server or the big guy, Oracle.

With a form or screen there is code such as PL/SQL behind them and with Access the code has to load every time you do something such as clicking a control button to run a report. Also remember that running the app part of Access or the forms, they are interpreted as you run them so memory has to be rebuilt. In Oracle the code is in the server memory, cached and as long as each instance of the command is exactly the same, the cached code will be used so it is much faster.

[flipper35]

I was ready to give an answer about millions of lines of code and al the different hardware it has to run on but your question isn't much different than asking why Porsche makes crappy aircraft engines (Mooney) and then telling everyone you pulled the engins from some old 912s and when you push the throttle levers forward on the C130 it is slow to respond. Kind of a poor implementation rather than poorly written software.

[RWebb]

it is crap software b/c [1] it has to be compatible with all the old stuff (DOS), and [2] they use it to wipe out a market competitor so go for the major customers and once they win, they stop working on it

[MysticLlama]

[1] It's not remotely compatible with DOS if it's even a reasonably current version.
[2] Just use OpenOffice then, it's free.

[3] As flipper says, it's either being used wrong, or you just don't know *why* it's doing that, and are getting frustrated, when it's working as intended (even if not how you expect)

And I'm definately no Access lover, I pretty much hate it most days, but even then, it's mostly because of how people are using it.

[scottmandue]

No expert on access but all of the above applies.

Most of all it is a 10 year old app... this is like asking why Windows 95 sucks.

[porsche4life]

I'm learning access right now, but it seems pointless to me. Most places use something that is more customized to the industry....


Waste of my tuition dollars, but its part of my MIS(Management Information Systems) class.

[MysticLlama]

Age depends on the version.

Access 2010 came out in May 2010, less than 2 years old.

Sidney- Access can be useful for small apps, temporary apps/dbs, prototyping, and just digging around and doing ad-hoc queries against SQL as a tool.

Sometimes it's nice to have something a little better than Excel for work product type projects to keep the data reasonably organized and importable to a bigger system later.

[John Rogers]

As noted, Access is okay for getting started but then the company/organization/etc will decide "hey it works okay, why spend any more $$$$...." and you know what will happen next. Something like the release of BART police personal information as it was in an Access database and was easily stolen. I tried to verify the Access part of that, but when I called, they refused to answer even though I told them I wanted to use their response for one of my computer security classes....... They hung up on me!

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

No expert on access but all of the above applies.

Most of all it is a 10 year old app... this is like asking why Windows 95 sucks.

What? '95 sucks? Plainest, easiest to use OS I have used. If MS had never gone beyond that, I'd be happy. I could use Windows Explorer to move files and folders and be able to find them later on.

Hell, today it's a task to find WE.

Access? Doan know too much except I kept an address book and it worked fine as opposed to keeping info in a Word form (no search). Queries seemed complex. But then I can't use Excell (I believe the base program) for poop.

So, if you owned a major OS, what would the key applications be?

[Shaun @ Tru6]

oy veh.

FWIW, I've written 2 enterprise level apps (Federated Department Stores, Shearman & Sterling, many years ago) in VB and SQL. We used Access for quick and dirty modeling.

But our order entry and invoicing system here is what Access is for. this is not a complex db, nor does it hold a qty of data worth mentioning. We created it knowing we'd want to write a proper app, being done now in C#, but I am amazed at how bad Access has become over the years.

Just a bit of frustration, but I stand by the original question, which is more akin to asking why Crystal Reports sucks.

id10t, thanks, we already have cutePDF installed, love it, use it all the time.

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by MysticLlama

[1] It's not remotely compatible with DOS if it's even a reasonably current version.

actually DOS legacy issues are buried in there just like the ancient genes in your body that aren't even turned on

I am not claiming it will run in DOS

[BernieP]

I have used Access for years to keep my inventory for my small business. 2000 items, it works great as a single user database. For a multi user networked app there are much better products available.

BernieP

[svandamme]

MS Access in 2012???