Hum, I have a big fan ms-office and thus I vote for ms-access.
However, MS within the last year did release a new version of Visual FoxPro,
and they do support it. It really rocks, and is a full Object Orientated
(OO) development environment. If you got some serious hard code developers
on your team, you owe yourself a look at VFP. They will like the product,
and it is a real tour of force. It is likely the best kept secret at MS.
Some how, MS just leaves that team alone, and they produce first rate stuff.
Further, if you your developer team is fluent in the dbase language, then
they might find that VPF is a better fit then ms-access. The "way" of
thinking and working in VFP is similar to dbase. In addition, much of the
designs and code you now have will be *more* transferable to FoxPro then
ms-access.
To switch to ms-access will take mind shift also. This "mind" shift is what
causes most problems when people come from a dbase background to ms-access.
What worked in dbase, and "how" you think about solutions will have to
change when you go to ms-access. If you don't want to make a big mind-set
change, then VPF is probably the way to go.
However, there are several advantages to moving to ms-access.
some reasons are:
** Huge user base. You can find a zillion ms-access sites, a zillion
ms-access developers, and a zillion books etc. It is super popular and has
just celebrated it 10th year, and is still going strong. The newsgroups here
easily answer about 1000 posts a day, and that alone is reason worth to use
ms-access.
** Ms-access uses the VB programming language. This means that when you
learn to program in ms-access, you are actually learning VB. Those VB skills
can then be used in Excel, and also Word, and also in VB. So, you get a lot
of bang for your time spent. By learning the language of ms-access, you now
have much more useful programming skills. Many a developers started out in
ms-access and have moved on to VB programming.
** Nice upgrade path to sql. ms-access from day one was designed with the
concept of the database engine being separate from the application. Thus, 10
years ago access did not have things like record numbers. (there is NO such
concept like that in ms-access, and that is one of those "changes" I talked
about, since products like dbase do have record numbers. Thus, from day one,
ms-access was built around using SQL for working with data. Again, this was
a brilliant move, as 10 years later virtually every major database system
today is based on sql.
When office97 came out, they packed the VB5 language behind word, Excel, and
ms-access. In fact, all of the office suite got the vb5 language. Again,
this was brilliant.
Now, we can even consume .net services via a soap add in. In other words, we
get dragged along this great ride and get all kinds of new technologies as
they come out.
Because ms invested heavily into the technology behind ms-access, here we
are 10 years later and STILL ABLE to use and develop with the application. A
remarkable feat. Further, Microsoft is working hard to add new features and
is already looking server versions beyond what they have now. The future
looks real fine for ms-access.
Here is some fast facts on the developer edition of office:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/developer/suite/fastfacts.asp