My first exposure to Access was back back when it was marketed as Access. An update came out “Access 1.1” - It was delivered on one floppy. As I recall it was a patch!
It seems each time a new version comes out - a lot of work is needed to update the database to the next version.
1.1 to 2.0 was an easy update. (At least my work on a collage admission package hadn’t progressed far enough to suffer the consequence)
Access 2.0 to Access 95 - was tough. Forms that took a few seconds to load - took minutes! Certain controls - LIKE grids triggered GPF’s. Getting around this this required considerable re-coding. The recommended work-around was to reduce the number of controls to 5 controls on a form. I converted a 7 page enrollment form into several dozen little forms - and after consulting with microsoft they said ‘you know - a lable is considered a control’. It was not possible to rev back an Access 95 to Access 2. I gave up on Access when this version came out. (to become a VB programmer)
Access 95 to Access 97 was tough. They replaced the form engine so all the work converting my code from access 2 to access 95 had to be redone - to put it back. (Not my problem YEA!)
Access 97 to Access 2000 - was not all that bad. They replaced the visual basic language with another visual basic language. When you open a database Access offers to convert the database into the new version (I think prior versions did the same thing). I think the only real problem is modules liked to disappear. Not a problem - it’s easy to import the module from the prior database.
One thing I REALLY REALLY HATE ABOUT THIS VERSION OF ACCESS is whereas Access 97 only ran in one MDI window (which in itself was pretty obnoxious), Access 2000 ran in 2 MDI windows - one for Access and the other for Visual Basic. Kind of like the programming language was slapped onto Access. I started distancing myself from Access with this version - but like a strange foot fungus - it keeps coming back ;^)
Access 2000 to Access 2002 - was probably the first version upgrade that went smoothly (except for perhaps the Access to 1.1 or the 1.1 to 2.0). Access 2002 does not offer to convert the database to the new version so there were no real version migration issues.
Access 2002 to Access 2003 - Hmm not sure how to answer this one - I think it’s also a clean upgrade.
Since Access 2000, 2002, 2003 all kind of work together - I can see where applications are finally starting to work. But there’s only one real problem - If you write an OFFICE application - you start battling library reference issues. For example the application is running successfully on a computer running office 2000. You load the application on Office 2002 - it runs. When you reload the application on a computer running office 2000 you start to get library reference errors.
- Office 2000 - Outlook 9, Excel 9
- Office XP (aka 2002) - 10.xx
- Office 2003 - Outlook 11, Excel 11
Generally you go into the reference page. It gives a list of associated libraries and shows errors next to the ones that dont reference properly. The fix is to update those invalid references to valid ones.