As for FE environment, I have been wanting to test out Lazarus from the Free Pascal project. Lazarus is an OSS/FS version of Borland Delphi. It is cross-platform.
As a software application development team of one, I could not justify the learning curve of writing at a lower level than VBA. Object Pascal annoyingly has the equivalent of C header files, where VBA / Open Object Rexx / Object PAL do not have such requirements. I am all right with dealing with VBA and Object PAL requiring variables to be defined (VBA Option Explicit), but having to maintain the equvilant of a C/C++ header file within the Object Pascal source file... yuck!
As well, the RAD environment of D&D data access components are not meant for serious application development. So the entire concept of previewing data in development mode is not possible when one connects to databases through Object Pascal classes. In Access/VBA, at least I can create instances of my DB classes, perform transactions via the VBA Editor Immediate window without having to develop the form the DB class is ultimately going to be married with.
For gaining the cross-platform, I am eager to dig into Lazarus. Being a team of one, I am drawn to familiarity (Access).
