The A-Team (i.e. the Access development team) at Microsoft have done something unprecedented, I believe.
They've started putting their plans for MS Access on the Office 365 Roadmap. You can read more about it all on Anders Ebro's Blog here: Smiley Coder's Review of the Office 365 Roadmap for ACCESS.
You can find the Roadmap itself here: Roadmap for Future Access Enhancements
Note that the two items mentioned here have been the subject of considerable discussion among the Microsoft Access MVP Group for a long time, and the fact that The A-Team is moving ahead on them sends a powerful message to the many fans of our lovable little database tool.
The inclusion of the BigInt data type increases the compatibility between Access and modern versions of SQL Server. That's a good thing from any perspective.
Restoring the ability to link Access to .dbf format files addresses a HUGE pain point for a couple of industries. Most of us probably shrugged our shoulders when it was deprecated in Access 2013, but to those people who NEED this ability, it was a deal-breaker.
The inclusion of the BigInt data type increases the compatibility between Access and modern versions of SQL Server. That's a good thing from any perspective.
Restoring the ability to link Access to .dbf format files addresses a HUGE pain point for a couple of industries. Most of us probably shrugged our shoulders when it was deprecated in Access 2013, but to those people who NEED this ability, it was a deal-breaker.
I couldn't be more delighted to see a public announcement... Well, at least not in the arena of software development.
