Visual Studio Community 2013
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@scottalanmiller said:
@garak0410 said:
Because I am honestly clueless as to what direction to go when I finally have time to develop around here...full Microsoft Office Shop so either I stay with ACCESS and VBA with some SQL backends or move to ASP.NET like many have told me over the years. I've also used LightSwitch which is easy in a pinch but based on the dying Sliverlight.
I don't follow the logic here. Working with MS Office, Access and VBA is one thing. Using ASP.NET and SQL Server are unrelated. Why would using the former make you consider the later? I don't understand how the one led you to the other.
VBA makes sense as it is the only option for Office automation. Once you go to web apps, why does any of that matter?
Again, honest ignorance...thought I needed Visual Studio to aid in web/browser based internal applications...
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@garak0410 said:
Again, honest ignorance...thought I needed Visual Studio to aid in web/browser based internal applications...
It sounds like circular reasoning. We chose VS because we chose VS. You are an all MS shop because you chose all MS.
I would step back and look at actual needs. Likely you are tying yourself to an expensive ship without reason.
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Once you go to web apps, one of the key value propositions is that you are no longer tied to any platform. You are free. You can keep using MS everywhere, but you don't have to. You can lower your dependence on things that get you audited. You don't need a CAL for every user of applications that you write yourself. You can lower cost, improve reliability and flexibility.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Once you go to web apps, one of the key value propositions is that you are no longer tied to any platform. You are free. You can keep using MS everywhere, but you don't have to. You can lower your dependence on things that get you audited. You don't need a CAL for every user of applications that you write yourself. You can lower cost, improve reliability and flexibility.
Good advice...I've always been intimidated by the development side of this job...going on 4 years here and while I have their absolute confidence and trust (and nice raises and bonuses), the time will come to really start producing here. And I'll just get down to basics...we are Excel heavy and may always be...I need to quit putting the horse behind the cart and just focus on where we are now. Excel, VBA and SQL. Get proficient on those things and then learn other dev skills so we can move to more robust platforms in the future...
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You have Excel as a SQL front end, I am guessing?
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@scottalanmiller said:
You have Excel as a SQL front end, I am guessing?
Yes...on many of our spreadsheets...primarily, SQL is used for Dynamics Great Plains 2010. Secondary, it holds parts for our manufacturing program and also contact information for our estimates and sales. With the latter all being Excel front ends.
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I would look at the possibility of anything new going to PostgreSQL and only use MS SQL Server when you have to. Yes that's two things to maintain but the cost savings might be big over time.
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@scottalanmiller said:
I would look at the possibility of anything new going to PostgreSQL and only use MS SQL Server when you have to. Yes that's two things to maintain but the cost savings might be big over time.
Adding to list...my goal is to make 2014 the "year of development" (why does that make me think of the movie, 2010: The Year We Make Contact... :bowtie: )...going to try to close out 2014 of all lingering "admin" issues and then just maintain those "admin" issues and gear toward development. And hitting the books too...no gaming! (like I get to anyway!)
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Look at Python as a general purpose language going forward. Super flexible, easy to use and can run on anything.
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Python is almost always a good option.
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Finally around to downloading this now
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@scottalanmiller said:
I would look at the possibility of anything new going to PostgreSQL and only use MS SQL Server when you have to. Yes that's two things to maintain but the cost savings might be big over time.
I'm definitely a one database guy. And that one database is MS SQL Server. I did start using MySQL for a while, but life was too short to learn two database systems.
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I use PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, Sybase, MS SQL Server, MariaDB, Oracle, SQLite or whatever fits the need at the time. Those are the ones that I used most of the time, though. But with so many new ones coming out now, using different databases for different things is more and more common.
