Why did you program WIMS 3 in Access and not in a geodatabase?
We began developing WIMS 3 (from an old BLM Access database) in 1999, before geodatabases were widely available. Since then, we have been impressed by the many uses and utilities of the new geodatabase applications, but have decided (for at least the near future) to keep WIMS 3 as a Microsoft Access database. This is primarily because we wanted to keep WIMS 3 as a widely available application that most field-based staff could easily use and obtain (since most folks will have MS Access on their computers). Further, we like certain features of Access that are more difficult to produce in a geodatabase application, such as report summaries, instant access to treatment histories and monitoring data, being able to share data without using a GIS-based application, etc.
