"Aaron Hicks" wrote in message
...
Actually, I did the bulk of the work. I had to hire out
programmers to do bits and pieces that used VB that was above my own skill
level. The first one to do work was the one who suggested I put all my
stuff in a database to begin with. His comment, upon seeing the paperwork
system I had, was that it was the "most organized" system he had ever
seen. For a guy like me whose typical organizational system consists
largely of piles and knowing which square meter of the floor something
might be on, I suppose that says something.

Actually, that says a great deal. I think, now that I have seen the history
of your project, the success of the project has more to do with your skills
than the abilities of the programmers you've hired. Yes, one or two of them
proved to be somewhat useful, but I have a problem with programmers that
choose not to finish what they have started. In my view, that is entirely
unethical. The excuses they offer are irrelevant. If they encounter
personal or professional problems, they ought to have enough self discipline
to finish regardless, and solve their problems on their own time.

Since you seem most concerned about your GUI, might I suggest you take up a
hobby of programming in java. You have a resource in me, should you run
into trouble. You can download NetBeans with Sun's Java SDK from either the
NetBeans site (www.netbeans.org) or Sun's site (developers.sun.com). I
suggest this because Sun provides outstanding tutorials on Java programming,
including database programming, and NetBeans provides an outstanding form
editor. I am certain that if you can handle MS Access development, you can
easily handle Java programming using NetBeans with the Java SDK. And, if
you can become proficient in something through independant study, I can help
you solve the ocassional problem should you get stuck. If you do this,
you'll have the skills you need to upgrade your application yourself, and
you won't need to rely on hiring someone else to get the job done. Or, if
you must hire someone because you don't have the time, you can closely
supervise him or her, and do weekly, or even daily code reviews to ensure
the quality of the work.

With regard to migrating your application over to MySQL, that would be
simple if your GUI was properly designed and implemented, especially if
written in Java. Alas, anything written in VB is going to be a royal pain
to maintain, not to mention upgrade. I could bore you with why I don't much
like VB, but this isn't the place.

Cheers,

Ted


--
R.E. (Ted) Byers, Ph.D., Ed.D.
R & D Decision Support Solutions
http://www.randddecisionsupportsolutions.com/
Healthy Living Through Informed Decision Making