What "version" of C++ to use?
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I'll try not to be too long-winded, but I want to give you guys a good enough idea of what I am hoping for to offer me some good advice, since I know a lot of you are honest-to-goodness professionals. I am not a programmer by trade. I code mostly for fun. However, I am considering making a foray into writing a program for actual small business use (niche market that I won't go into here). The program will be basic client information management stuff, database intensive but not heavy into graphics or anything very tricky. I figure I will rely heavily on ListControls in Report mode, but they need to be sortable (which I have learned to do with the help of some great articles here) and searchable (which is pretty standard -- press a key and it jumps to the first item in the first column starting with that letter, etc). I figure about 20,000-30,000 items in the list, and probably 2 (maybe 3) lists. The lists will be filled with data from a database. I figure probably a little HTML and web integration, but nothing beyond basics. And some relatively basic printing (and I hope to integrate faxing). That's about it. As far as fancy GUI stuff, it isn't necessary -- but admittedly I'd like the XP look (but that's less important). So, what I have now is Visual C++ 6.0 Pro. I have downloaded some nifty stuff from CodeProject, but I don't have any commercial developer tools. My system is XP Pro. My question(s) is/are: 1) Should I upgrade to a newer version of C++ (such as .Net 2003, etc)? I understand the MS is no longer supporting v6.0 (does that matter to me?). 2) Which database engine should I be using? -- at present I am familiar with the basics through MFC (CDatabase, CTableDef, CRecordset, etc). 3) Are there any commercial tools that are particularly useful in my case? I'm not completely averse to spending money to get the right stuff, but since this is not my profession or my business, I'd like to keep costs down a bit where possible. I appreciate any input, so thanks in advance.
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I'll try not to be too long-winded, but I want to give you guys a good enough idea of what I am hoping for to offer me some good advice, since I know a lot of you are honest-to-goodness professionals. I am not a programmer by trade. I code mostly for fun. However, I am considering making a foray into writing a program for actual small business use (niche market that I won't go into here). The program will be basic client information management stuff, database intensive but not heavy into graphics or anything very tricky. I figure I will rely heavily on ListControls in Report mode, but they need to be sortable (which I have learned to do with the help of some great articles here) and searchable (which is pretty standard -- press a key and it jumps to the first item in the first column starting with that letter, etc). I figure about 20,000-30,000 items in the list, and probably 2 (maybe 3) lists. The lists will be filled with data from a database. I figure probably a little HTML and web integration, but nothing beyond basics. And some relatively basic printing (and I hope to integrate faxing). That's about it. As far as fancy GUI stuff, it isn't necessary -- but admittedly I'd like the XP look (but that's less important). So, what I have now is Visual C++ 6.0 Pro. I have downloaded some nifty stuff from CodeProject, but I don't have any commercial developer tools. My system is XP Pro. My question(s) is/are: 1) Should I upgrade to a newer version of C++ (such as .Net 2003, etc)? I understand the MS is no longer supporting v6.0 (does that matter to me?). 2) Which database engine should I be using? -- at present I am familiar with the basics through MFC (CDatabase, CTableDef, CRecordset, etc). 3) Are there any commercial tools that are particularly useful in my case? I'm not completely averse to spending money to get the right stuff, but since this is not my profession or my business, I'd like to keep costs down a bit where possible. I appreciate any input, so thanks in advance.
David Fleming wrote: Should I upgrade to a newer version of C++ (such as .Net 2003, etc)? No. What you have is more than sufficient. David Fleming wrote: I understand the MS is no longer supporting v6.0 (does that matter to me?). True. You will not be able to download the Platform SDK. Only the CD is available. I think it is $10 for S&H. David Fleming wrote: 2) Which database engine should I be using? Preferably the one which you are most familiar with. Access and MySQL are the two most common for personal use. For bigger stuff, consider Microsoft SQL, although it is a bit costly. While not an engine per se, there's also Microsoft FoxPro.
"Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who put them into action are priceless." - Unknown
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David Fleming wrote: Should I upgrade to a newer version of C++ (such as .Net 2003, etc)? No. What you have is more than sufficient. David Fleming wrote: I understand the MS is no longer supporting v6.0 (does that matter to me?). True. You will not be able to download the Platform SDK. Only the CD is available. I think it is $10 for S&H. David Fleming wrote: 2) Which database engine should I be using? Preferably the one which you are most familiar with. Access and MySQL are the two most common for personal use. For bigger stuff, consider Microsoft SQL, although it is a bit costly. While not an engine per se, there's also Microsoft FoxPro.
"Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who put them into action are priceless." - Unknown
Great, thanks. I figured vc6 would be sufficient, but since I don't know anything about the new versions, I wasn't sure if maybe there was something I really needed. I have ordered the SDK, thanks. (I checked the MS website to find out which version is the latest that will work for vc6 -- Feb 2003). With regard to the database engine. I am familiar with Access, but I don't know anything about MySQL. So forgive my ignorance here, but is it part of the big bundle of stuff I got with vc6 pro? or do I buy it separately? Also, as I mentioned in my message, my program will probably be dealing with a database containing something on the order of 20,000-30,000 records (and probably 3 tables, each with roughly that number of records); do you think Access or MySQL are going to be fast enough? Should I be looking into MS SQL? Thanks for the info.
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Great, thanks. I figured vc6 would be sufficient, but since I don't know anything about the new versions, I wasn't sure if maybe there was something I really needed. I have ordered the SDK, thanks. (I checked the MS website to find out which version is the latest that will work for vc6 -- Feb 2003). With regard to the database engine. I am familiar with Access, but I don't know anything about MySQL. So forgive my ignorance here, but is it part of the big bundle of stuff I got with vc6 pro? or do I buy it separately? Also, as I mentioned in my message, my program will probably be dealing with a database containing something on the order of 20,000-30,000 records (and probably 3 tables, each with roughly that number of records); do you think Access or MySQL are going to be fast enough? Should I be looking into MS SQL? Thanks for the info.
mysql is a 3rd party db whose peroformance and price sit between Access and MSSql/Oracle. I'd probably give it a try in access first and goto mysql if performance becomes a problem. mssql would probably be overkill for what you're doing. www.mysql.org
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Great, thanks. I figured vc6 would be sufficient, but since I don't know anything about the new versions, I wasn't sure if maybe there was something I really needed. I have ordered the SDK, thanks. (I checked the MS website to find out which version is the latest that will work for vc6 -- Feb 2003). With regard to the database engine. I am familiar with Access, but I don't know anything about MySQL. So forgive my ignorance here, but is it part of the big bundle of stuff I got with vc6 pro? or do I buy it separately? Also, as I mentioned in my message, my program will probably be dealing with a database containing something on the order of 20,000-30,000 records (and probably 3 tables, each with roughly that number of records); do you think Access or MySQL are going to be fast enough? Should I be looking into MS SQL? Thanks for the info.
David Fleming wrote: ...is it part of the big bundle of stuff I got with vc6 pro? No. David Fleming wrote: do you think Access or MySQL are going to be fast enough? I've never used MySQL, and I've never used Access with that volume of data. I agree with Dan in the order of use.
"Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who put them into action are priceless." - Unknown
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Great, thanks. I figured vc6 would be sufficient, but since I don't know anything about the new versions, I wasn't sure if maybe there was something I really needed. I have ordered the SDK, thanks. (I checked the MS website to find out which version is the latest that will work for vc6 -- Feb 2003). With regard to the database engine. I am familiar with Access, but I don't know anything about MySQL. So forgive my ignorance here, but is it part of the big bundle of stuff I got with vc6 pro? or do I buy it separately? Also, as I mentioned in my message, my program will probably be dealing with a database containing something on the order of 20,000-30,000 records (and probably 3 tables, each with roughly that number of records); do you think Access or MySQL are going to be fast enough? Should I be looking into MS SQL? Thanks for the info.
Following what Dan and David said, if you use Access, you can always program against MSDE, which makes it easy to migrate to SQL Server later if you run out of steam. Kevin
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Following what Dan and David said, if you use Access, you can always program against MSDE, which makes it easy to migrate to SQL Server later if you run out of steam. Kevin
OK. Thank you guys all for the input. I'll forge ahead with what I've got. So far, from what little testing and benchmarking I've been able to do, Access seems up to the task. Thanks again.
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Great, thanks. I figured vc6 would be sufficient, but since I don't know anything about the new versions, I wasn't sure if maybe there was something I really needed. I have ordered the SDK, thanks. (I checked the MS website to find out which version is the latest that will work for vc6 -- Feb 2003). With regard to the database engine. I am familiar with Access, but I don't know anything about MySQL. So forgive my ignorance here, but is it part of the big bundle of stuff I got with vc6 pro? or do I buy it separately? Also, as I mentioned in my message, my program will probably be dealing with a database containing something on the order of 20,000-30,000 records (and probably 3 tables, each with roughly that number of records); do you think Access or MySQL are going to be fast enough? Should I be looking into MS SQL? Thanks for the info.
Consider using MSDE if it's limitations are within your need. It is MS SQL Server, tuned for 5 concurrent users (but not limited to that) and limited to 2GB database size for each database. It is much more robust and performant than Access, and easily upgradeable to the full SQL version if needed later. It is freely redistributable as long as you used Microsoft tools for the application (VC6 is fine). It is missing the fancy GUI tools (enterpris manager, query analyzer) and won't support replication, but otherwise is a fully functional version of SQL Server ioncluding all command line tools. It can be downloaded here[^] Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power Eric Hoffer The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not. Eric Hoffer