cpu and Access

[Mark CHP IMD]

I understand that MS Access is considered cpu hungry because it complies
routinely. Also, VB does not compile the same way, and is not cpu intensive.
Any thoughts?

 

[Douglas J Steele]

That's not completely true.

Yes, you cannot compile an Access application into a EXE, but it is compiled
into intermediary code. VB isn't that different, though: it doesn't compile
into a stand-along executable either (you still need the VB Runtime
library).

I don't think you'll see a significant difference between the two.

 

[Mark CHP IMD]

Douglas,
I have been given this info from a vendor (Citrix) as I am trying to use
Access as a state wide real time application. The feeling is that Access is
to be avoided whenever possible do to the nature of its constant compiling
and cpu usage. Does all this goes away if you break out the back end and put
it on a SQL server? If so, what’s the requirement for Citrix or terminal
services?
Thanks,
Mark

 

[Rick Brandt]

I understand that MS Access is considered cpu hungry because it
complies routinely. Also, VB does not compile the same way, and is
not cpu intensive. Any thoughts?

No, Some people probably think that Access is CPU hungry because Access 97
(and older?) constantly used as much CPU as it could to monitor certain
activities. However; this was done in a very low priority thread so any
other process that called for the CPU would get whatever it needed because
Access would yield the processor.

Looking at TaskManager though people would see the CPU (apparently) pegged
and it would return to normal when Access was closed. Thus "Access is a CPU
hog".

If you distribute an MDE to users (what most developers do anyway) this
completely eliminates any on-the-fly compiling since an MDE cannot become
uncompiled as an MDB can.

 

[Douglas J Steele]

Many posters here have reported using Access on Citrix with no problems.
While I don't know the specifics here, many vendors don't know as much as
about Access as they should, and tend to denigrate it.

However, I would question the use of Access for a real-time application. It
depends on the frequency of updates, the frequency of database lookups and
the like.