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I'm currently rewriting our company's database app, which is an Access-VBA frontend for a SQL Server (Express) backend.
I've been managing the application for 4 years or so now and when I started here it was a single *.MDB-file on a network share (which got corrupt on a weekly basis).
Since then I changed the DB to a multi-user *.MDE, later I migrated the data to a SQL Express Server as an *.ADE.
Since then the application runs smoothly and is very reliable.
But, of course there are some drawbacks using Access (no source control, dependent on Office version, etc etc), So I suggested to my boss to rewrite the frontend in C# & WPF.
I did a bit of Java and C++ a few years ago, but thats it. Now I've been working on this project for 3 months or so and the going is very tough. Just for such simple tasks as filling a combobox I have to search the net and read a lot of stuff.
I really want to learn C# (and also have learned a lot of stuff since I started!) and I find this a great opportunity, but maybe I have overextended myself, starting with a real LOB application as a single, junior developer?
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1. : to try to do too much. Don't overextend yourself or else you'll burn out. : to spend more money than one can afford to spend. Young people with credit cards often overextend themselves.
Exhaustion and Overwhelm If you're feeling burnt out, it's a pretty sure sign you're overextended. Perhaps you're looking at your schedule and feeling daunted or wondering how you'll ever be able to get it all done. Most of us are familiar with physical exhaustion, but pay attention to emotional exhaustion as well.
Picking a technology for a project because you want to learn it is always a risk. I'd also concerned about WPF. For one, it's not a proven technology (in the same sense that Winforms is). It's still rather new. The second is that it puts potentially problematic limits on what systems it can run on. Vista/Win7 or I think XP SP3. That may or may not be an issue.
The good rule of thumb is that you should ship early and ship often. Break off a piece of functionality and deliver that. For a time you may have the users using both apps for different tasks. You're far better off doing that than trying to swallow the whole thing in one go.
Also, and I think you're discovering this, complete rewrites are nearly always a mistake. It's a lot of work for not much gain, you're giving yourself a lot of opportunities to introduce bugs in things that already work and you lose a lot of domain knowledge (and working code).
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