November 1997

Customers and colleagues often ask for my advice on choosing the development platform for their application.

Should they go with Visual Basic, or Visual FoxPro? Should they go with MS Access 97 or not?

How about SQL Server?

Should they go with a Client Server solution or is a File Server platform adequate?

Though there are some very distinct differences and subsequently very defined reasons to choose one over another, there are some instances where the answers are very subjective. Especially where Access 97 uses Jet 3.0 - a marked improvement over the prior Jet Engine database architecture. The size of the database, the number of tables, the number of users... are a reliable litmus test. But some other factors are skill level of the administrator, number of different platforms involved, what is the target user base, etc..

This edition of Shoptalk I dedicate to a November 1996 Microsoft knowledge base article on addressing this very question.

This article was written by

Robert Green
Product manager for Desktop Databases
Microsoft Corporation

Please enjoy Choosing the Appropriate Database Development Tool.

In the next article, look for coverage on Active X technology, VB Script, FrontPage 98, Visual Interdev, and Active Server Pages.

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