Newbie question re. using ST code inside MS-Access

New to SmallTalk but have learnt the basics as part of my degree course.

Now I would like to write a very simple routine (sorry, old nomenclature!) in
SmallTalk that I can include as a kind of "add-in" to an MS-Access2003 mdb
application, similar to the way Access uses a linked mde file (via
"references") inside.

Questions:-
1) Can it be done in the way I've outlined?
2) Can it be done using Dolphin Community Edition X6?
3) Has anyone out there already done something similar and could give me some
guidance on how to approach this task?

Thanks

Gargoyle,
"Gargoyle" <nobody@loadsarubbish.pers> wrote in message
news:<suo343l0rd2opj9cv8gu10m2m6nak3u75a@4ax.com>. ..
>
> New to SmallTalk but have learnt the basics as part of my degree course.
>
> Now I would like to write a very simple routine (sorry, old nomenclature!)
> in
> SmallTalk that I can include as a kind of "add-in" to an MS-Access2003 mdb
> application, similar to the way Access uses a linked mde file (via
> "references") inside.
>
> Questions:-
> 1) Can it be done in the way I've outlined?
No doubt at least something similar is feasible. You'd probably end up
creating an ActiveX component. Whether it's a good idea to do it this way
is another question.

> 2) Can it be done using Dolphin Community Edition X6?
You certainly could do it with the Professional Edition, but I think the
Community Edition's ActiveX stuff is relatively limited.

> 3) Has anyone out there already done something similar and could give me
> some
> guidance on how to approach this task?
The real question is, what are you trying to do? If you have to build an
application in Access or want to extend the Access development environment
(such as it is ;^) using Dolphin Smalltalk to do something behind the
scenes, what you've described could work.

But if you're planning to write a database application, I'd recommend
writing the application in Dolphin using ADO. You can still use Access to
create (and/or manage) an MDB file (or reports, or whatever), but Dolphin's
application development environment is incomparably better than what Access
offers. Even though Access forms may seem to be a simple way to create
applications, I've found them to be a real pain for anything more than a
rudimentary, disposible layer over a data table. (In fact, I quit even
bothering with rudimentary forms; it's best just to edit the data directly
in the table or using SQL update queries.)

HTH,

Don

>
> Thanks

Thanks for the reply Don. The access application is already complete.

As you say, I was trying to perform a task behind the scenes, the reason being
twofold:-
1. to protect certain data so that the Access application would not work in
isolation;
2. to gain some hands-on experience of using SmallTalk for a relatively small
self-contained task.

It sounds as if trying to do this will entail too much work for little or no
real gain.

At some point, you're right, I'll probably convert the whole application into
SmallTalk, perhaps with something like Postgres. When (if) I ever get the
time!

G