Don't fall for it. (MS Access 97)

Member Name: Manx

Product:	MS Access 97
Date:	23/04/09 (20 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use .

Disadvantages: It bloats dangerously for no reason

Urg. No. No.
Micro$oft's Access looks like the business when you start to use it. It is easy to use - point and click in places and then drag and drop in other places. If you want to build a simple database from the ground up then Micro$oft Access looks like a good bet.
If you start to poke around, though, you'll soon discover holes in Access.

For example, there is a compress database function in one of the menus. That might sound innocent enough but this function is not like an in-built WinZip, no, Access databases are -very- prone to inexplicable bloating. For no given reason, save for standard use, an Access database can quickly grow into a memory-eating monster. Rather than try and solve this error in the system Mirco$oft presents you with the compress database function-fix instead.
Like the other products in the Micro$oft family Access uses VBA and you can write your very own VBScript Functions for it to run... and it does run these functions, sometimes. There seems to be neither rhyme nor rhythm why a VB scripted function will run in one db and when it is cut and pasted into another, it will not run at all. The VBScript debugging window is more than often just blank - even when there are reported errors.

There is also a big catch in the ease of use that Access presents. If you want to do something that the WIMP system does not cover then you are in trouble; there is no easy way to do it... and very often, there is no way to do it at all.
Luckily, Micro$oft Access uses SQL. Unluckily, you can not seem to do anything with the SQL directly. There is the feeling that talking to the SQL directly is a valid user option... but it just does not work.

Summary: Don't fall for it.

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