Two of my friends and I worked at a company as the software engineers for a mini-mart project. The project manager told us that he had done a similar project which we could use to customize for the new project.
His project used Microsoft Access as the interface and SQL Server as the database system.
At the early point of the new project, we came to the stage of technology dilemma. Should we use the same technology, MS Access and SQL, VB, VB.Net, or Java?
All three of us were more comfortable with VB or VB.Net than MS Access but we chose the latter.
Before it was a surprise to me to hear most of my friends say that many companies (including a bank) in Cambodia are still using legacy language.
"Why the legacy language?"
or
"Why not the new and improved VB.Net? Or platform-independent Java?"
In our case, we chose the legacy language simply because that the previous project we base on use the legacy one and that we were told it would simply be a minor customization. But it turned out to be a major work! I'll tell the painful experience in the next blog.
Now why do companies use legacy language?
Possible reasons:
-They are used to it.
-They fear the risk of adopting new language.
It is similar to why Linux evangelists find it extremely hard to lure people out of Windows.
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It's not absolutely new to select one of the MS-Access, VB, or VB.NET. As I knew, most of the programmers in Cambodia were somehow familiar with VB rather than its opponent Java. Therefore, there is no doubt to choose among the three. But what surprises me is that you guys chose MS-Access instead of VB.NET. To me, I prefer C# or Java.
ReplyDeleteI am shamed. I wish we had chosen VB.Net. If it's for now, I would go for Java
ReplyDeleteOh man, don't cry at the midst of pain. You still have a chance to turn back. I would recommend you not to choose Java if you are going to build stand-alone application. Java framework might be the right choice for those are dealing with web service which needs less cost of software development. Since you are doing it in Cambodia, just choose .NET framework and link it to your old mdb.
ReplyDeleteWhat is your favorite features of .Net?
ReplyDeleteI would prefer Java because of
-Its strong community support.
-Its support for Persistence API that you can easily link to database.
-My interest in web programming. So i think it's good to master a language. You can use the knowledge of building Java desktop application for web application. After all, it's the same language.