I note this little gem from The Register: Migrating Access to SQL made (almost) easy that
documents the trials and tribulations experienced by the author in implementing the new Microsoft Access to SQL Server tool.
There seem to be some fairly basic and fundamental problems here with the tool – converting queries with dates (Access is chock-full of this) and double-quotes instead of single-quotes (again, Access 101, and a major deviation from the SQL standards).
There is also a fundamental issue – this is converting the data built in these internally-developed databases, but in most cases these databases are kludged together – not surprisingly ignoring the fundamental rules of database design! – such that the tables consist of a single flat table (Database Design Aarghs 101) and all the data rules contained in a multitude of forms that tend to do much the same thing.
I remember when I finally saw the light with Access that converting these developed programs and mature approaches into the programming code was ‘interesting’. Access was in my opinion both the best thing and the worst thing that happened to database management in the 1990s. It provided the full power of a relational database on the desktop of those that had never seen it before (good), and many many people used it to manage critical information without any design understanding or consideration of the business implications of their approach (bad).
I guess it’s like a gun – databases don’t create bad database design, people do…