At 10:55 AM 07/02/1998 -1000, Rick Hilton wrote:
I would also like to affirm what has already been said about data
portability. Since Access is a mainstream database it is a good place to
keep your data.  I'm afraid we must all admit the Microsoft is in control
for now, therefore your data is probably safest in one of their products.
<<<<
Microsoft does indeed seem to be in control. However, I question whether
that makes it the only really safe solution.  As long as a database
package's storage format is ODBC-compatible (and assuming that you've taken
the precaution of providing yourself a with a copy of the matching ODBC
driver), you should not have to worry about being to transfer your data to
another system; any other ODBC-compatible database software (including
Access) should be able to read it.  Unlike some software companies, the
ODBC standard is well enough entrenched that it is unlikely to disappear
any eon soon.

Other than this, the only major caveat that I would suggest is that really
funky special field types provided by one database package, but not common
in others, should be used with caution.  Doing field type conversions
before you can transfer your data can be a major waste of time!
>>>>

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