I have a question, but I'll rant first .

Having been born in 1951 I am something of a troglodyte when it comes to information technology ... I've built some of the most amazing card file and notebook data systems, at university we were using slide rulers and mechanical calculators.  A few years back I acquired a 1980 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (30 Volumes) for $3.00 total, and later the 2,019 page Harper's Latin Dictionary for 50 cents.  I sometimes go "old skool" and look things up the old fashion way.  I still often go to local libraries to consult standard reference works rather than "get on the web", 'cuz just because it's on the internet doesn't mean its accurate or true.

Enough of being retro, I defiantly appreciate the strides that have been made for data storage and analysis.  However, one of my biggest pet peeves is when people use spread sheets (for example, Excel) as a "database", because spread sheets AREN'T databases.

I self-taught myself Microsoft Access (my abilities are rather basic, but I can still do a lot with it) to manage data that I didn't have a dedicated database for, or to extend the capability of a database program.  In my current semi-retirement I'm a board member and the volunteer food inventory person for our local St. Vincent DePaul Conference food bank, currently serving around 1,400 families per week.  The food receiving and inventory is tracked in Google Docs.  I hope to develop a inventory database in Access that can generate needed reports, rather than looking up the numbers from Google Docs and hand typing the reports.  Other data management functions may be added later.

When I've talked to professional programmers they tend to be disdainful of Access.  I can appreciate that there would be advantages to a "coded from scratch" dedicated database (if one can afford to have that done), and perhaps they look upon Access as competition (no need to pay someone if you can do it yourself).

I'm curious what the programmers here think of Access.