Currently I have the best of both worlds in the personal geodatabase, I can store the attributes and work with geometry from the same data store from any program I choose to use. My excel, project managment, asset modeling management tools, ms office, load rating application (structural analysis programs many of them), inventory applications...many many more such tools and apps directly read the same ms access database. There is no intermediate steps I have to do or make in order to use the data; ONE Singular datastore for both GIS work and Atrribute/Data Analysis/Retrieval/Storage (Does not matter matter to me if the MS Access is slower). This is why I refuse to use the File Database, because I first have to import in the geometry, work with it (Yes I know it is much more faster and robust than the ms variant), then export the work back into something else my myraid of apps can read, if I made a wrong guess, re-export the data back into a file geo-database and repeat over and over until I got the correct results. The GIS portion is only a step/tool in organizing my data needs. In addition, for other external data they may be stored in enterprise location in Oracle, Paradox, and SQL Sever, again MS Access serves me as a middle broker that can reach out simultaneously query all those stores in one query -- again a one stop shop. I am a structural engineer and GIS is only a tool for my work with DATA.
GIS use of data focuses on geometry, not the management and manipulation of data outside of geometry. I do understand why thing like using stored procedures, user defined function ect are not exposed within ArcGIS and only limitly exposed in programming. Why do I have to repeat and re-invent logic when it already resides in outside database and functions fine. -- Yes I can access stored procedures and pass paramater, and use user functions within Access -- File database does not. And the final insult is some of the stuff I need to import to a file geodatabase, I first have to export to an old fashion shape file with to get the data into a file geodatabse, then deal with the data type, and field name limitations of the dbase III plus format (going both ways back and forth).
Sorry, about the wall text this was not the intent for a simple question asked by the OP. For that I apologize for this slight hijacking
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