Whatever else you read about Access, keep in mind that it's actually two
products bundled into one - and either product can be used separately.
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- A front-end development system analogous to VB or PowerBuilder which can be
pointed at any back end.
- A back-end file-based data storage system that is superficially similar to
products like SyBase, Oracle, or SQL-Server - but which is fundamentally
different underneath and definitely *not* suitable for the same range
of applications. Technically, the back-end part is called "JET", but
for practical purposes most people think of it as MS Access.
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I lot of IT people seem unaware of the above distinction and judge the front-end
development system on the limitations of the back-end data storage system.
There are limitations in the front-end system, but they have nothing to do with
the limitations in the back-end system.