For one thing I am talking about its placement in the Microsoft Empire (TM). It is bundled with and sold as an Office productivity product, not as an environment to create shrinkwrapped or Application Service Provider software. I'm not saying that it has no power (I have seen a particular call-tracking Access app that made me really say "wow), I'm saying that Access hasn't been lumped into the realm of "professional languages".

Another angle of it is where it is actually used. Most corporate desktop apps I have seen are VB with a real data store, a lesser percentage are VFP, and lesser percentage are C++. Access was used when IT didn't respond quick enough for business needs, so an analyst created something that talked to a MSSQL DB, but I have rarely seen it as something a company would stake a business on (for all the reasons we know).

Along the same lines, I wonder there's going to be an Access.NET anytime soon. :)






> I was wondering how you came to the conclusion that "Access has never been (or will be?) a serious developer's environment" ? I'd always thought of it as a toy, although I'd never used it before and had only come to this conclusion as a result of what I'd read and people I'd talked to ( the same problem that frustrates us when someone makes a negative comment about Foxpro ). Then I started using it for development and was pleasantly surprised by it. The more I develop with it and learn about it the more I like it. At times it can be frustrating but then so can VFP. I've learnt a lot from Access, especially VBA which I've also put to use in VFP Applications. I firmly believe that Access can be a serious development tool and I say this from experience.