interview oddity

Topic

New Reply

I was in an interview recently where someone mentioned multiple versions of Access on 1 form and how it was driving them crazy. First off, I thought, awfully sloppy upgrade situation, but then I thought, hmm, is this a trick question?

Basically, I have heard of problems with things not working as planned/desired/advertised on an access form, but multiple version conflicts?

I don’t have an example, but I’d like your opinion, anyway.

Reply | Quote

Replies

I am not sure that I understand the question.

Are you saying that the db was shared between people who used different versions of Access, and that one or more forms created a problem. When they got the form(s) to work in one version of Access, it did not work in the other, and they could not find a solution that worked in both.

Reply | Quote

I am not sure that I understand the question.

Are you saying that the db was shared between people who used different versions of Access, and that one or more forms created a problem. When they got the form(s) to work in one version of Access, it did not work in the other, and they could not find a solution that worked in both.

As far as I can tell, they were talking about an update field on the form that didn’t communicate back to the db, because it represented a very old version of Access. I’ve programmed in Access, VB, VB.NET and VS in general and I’ve never heard of this. Mulitple users are involved, and there’s something amiss with something – I just wished they would have showed me because I would be in a better position to figure out what the situation was. It apparently was a big pain for the users.

I do remember using an upgrade wizard once that really gummed up my application. I know, I don’t understand it, either, but as I’m trying to get my foot in the door, as it were, I’d like to be prepared with a polite but knowledgeable answer.

Reply | Quote

Back in the dim dark distant past, I do recall a couple of situations where we did have problems with versions compatibility. The first case was when we had a complex unbound form with lots of Access Basic code behind it, and we had a couple of users try to use that database with a version where Visual Basic for Applications was involved, and some of the Access Basic code didn’t play nice in VBA. I don’t remember the versions involved, but it did create a bit of a mess.

The second case was when we upgraded selected users from Access 97 to an early version of Access 2000, and left the back-end as an Access 97 (Jet 3) database. In that case, we actually ended up with some scrambled data in the backend because of a bug in Jet 4 that didn’t play quite right with the earlier format. Those are the only situations I have personally seen. You might want to inquire what versions of Access were involved if you get the opportunity.

Reply | Quote

Wendell,

Suddenly it becomes clear…I forgot about that Jet stuff. When I asked they said they had progressed from 1.0 – 2007. I gathered that there were several hands in it and none of those hands were still working there.

Thanks!

Reply | Quote