I usually develop small business applications using MS Access and VBA. But VBA seems stuck in the same concept than 15 years ago, so may be it is time to turn into .NET, (the Express, free environments)
My applications are data-focused (Management software for a swimming pool, for instance), limited number of users (1 to 10), almost no graphics (some pictures, some pies, some maps from google...), .. everything related to data (as traditional transactional applications)
I would like to develop using 3 layers, and in principle no web functionality is required (just a LAN in the premises of the swimming club)... .but,..... maybe some day the manager of the club wants to query some business aspects remotely (mark's history of a given swimmer, calendar for next competitions, payment status of a certain member,...).... so,. there is the dilemma,.. what package to use: VS Express comes now in 5 options: Web, Windows, windows Desktp, Team Foundation, and Windows Phone....
I might develop almost everyting in Windows Forms, and some specific functionality (checking valid user at login, or once a month,...) could be web-based,.... may be the DB (Sql Server Express) could be remote,....
Application will have between 10 and 30 tables (but half of them will be just Code/Description), no more than 1000 members,.... no more than 30 competitions / year... so, modest figures....
I would like to get some guidance on what to use, and may be how to communicate layers (standard ddl, web services?...)...
thanks