[RESOLVED] DAO compatibilty

[wes4dbt]

While reading some posts about CR deployment, I read this quote from Si the Geek reguarding DAO.

"It will not be available on the 64-bit Windows operating system."

Does this mean VB6 applications that use DAO will not run on Vista 64 bit systems?

Any information will be appreciated.

[si_the_geek]

When quoting an old post, please link to it - I had to spend a while finding it, only to see that virtually everything you need is already there.

It seems that it was in this thread: http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=456036

..where I specifically linked to what Microsoft have to say about it (what you quoted, and more), posted back in 2002:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...p%20old_topic9
There was also a discussion of the chances of DAO working on 64bit - the basic conclusion was that even if you manage to install it somehow, it is unlikely to work (and even if it seems to then there is a high chance of bugs).

..I also paraphrased VB's help, published in 1998:

You should never have created VB6 programs using DAO (in the help it explicitly said something like "only use DAO for existing projects, use ADO for all new ones")

[wes4dbt]

Si,

Sorry I didn't provide the link, but really didn't think you would want to look it up. I was only asking if I correctly understood what was being said.
This was the thread http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.p...crystal+report


The application that I'm worried about was written over ten years ago. But I still have several clients that depend on it.

From what I've read, if I understand correctly, it seems that I will have to convert this application to ADO before it can be run on a Vista 64 bit system.

thanks for the reply, didn't mean to cause you any extra work.

[si_the_geek]

Sticking with DAO is not a wise choice - but 'just' converting to ADO isn't that much better, because VB6 is not that far away from being as dead as DAO. It has been unsupported for a while, and apps are likely to not work on Windows versions after 7 (some components may not even work on 7).

What I would recommend is doing what you will probably need to do in a couple of years anyway, which is to upgrade the entire app to .Net

I know that sounds like a lot of work, but assuming you have a reasonable amount of database related code then it wont actually be much more effort than switching to ADO - but will give you several extra years before another major update is needed.

Of course whether or not that is apt for you depends on your circumstances.

[wes4dbt]

Si,

Thanks for the reply. I'll have to think about converting to .Net. I'm simi retired and plan on being completely retired within 5 years. But, I don't want to leave my clients in a bad situation. I've worked with most of them for 20+ years.

Thanks again