There seems to be a (one-man?) retag war centring on the correct usage of tags when the only context mentioned is the MS Access application's native database engine.
Background
Access is a multifaceted thing but the element in question is its own default database engine. What to call it? Back in the 1990s, things used to be so simple. Formally, database engine was called Jet (project name Jet Red, not to be confused with Jet Blue). Jet is a set of DLLs and a de facto a Windows component though the Access product is very much wedded to Jet. Jet is a file-based database product and its most popular the file format has the .mdb extension.
Though Jet was the technically correct term, most folk used the phrase "Access database" to refer to Jet or an .mdb file, somewhat informally as it turns out, but everyone understood what was meant.
Why did "Access database" become vernacular? Well, Microsoft's has never been terrible formal about the distinction between Access and Jet, probably for commercial reasons. One has never needed Access to create, maintain and use an mdb file as the data store for a multi user application and indeed was a popular choice back in the VB6 era; perhaps Jet's close association helped sell Access to software developers. Microsoft's documentation has always blurred the distinction between Access and Jet. The name of the ODBC driver for Jet was called 'Microsoft Access Driver'. There are many more examples.
Then came the Access2007 release. The Access Team was granted a private copy of the Jet code base, to be able to make changes to its own produced without being vetoed by the Windows team. This new engine is, I think, known formally as ACE. Though I have been unable to find a source for this, I think it is reasonable to assume that the 'A' (and possible the 'C' as well) stands for 'Access'. It's most popular file format has an .accdb extension -- can this really stand for anything other than 'Access database'?
This advent of the ACE era gave rise to a need for a collective term to mean, "Jet plus ACE plus any future name". The formal term coined by the Access Team seems to be the "Access Database Engine" (note title case).
Problem
How should questions that appear to reference only Access's default database engine be tagged?
Because most SO folk, I believe, have always used the vernacular "Access database", the MS-Access
tag is most popular. There is a tag for Access
but I understand that is used as a generic term rather than referring specifically to the Access application. There has also been some usage of the MDB
tag.
In recent days, SO user Remou has been adding the tag MS-Access
to questions already tagged with MDB
. It seems from this question that the motivation was to disambiguate JBoss-MDB
and MS-Access-MDB
. I think this is a good thing because MS-Access
best reflects the vernacular "Access database" and MS-Access-MDB
is quite 'wordy' by using two terms, 'MS-Access' and 'MDB'.
However, SO user David W. Fenton has been further retagging by adding the tag MS-Jet-ACE
and removing the MS-Access tag. I do not think this is a good thing because MS-Jet-ACE
, though technically not incorrect, is wordy, isn't widely used even in technical forums, confuses meaning and will be missed by SO folk who, I believe, expect to see the vernacular term "Access" in the tag.
Question
Which tags should be added to questions that seemingly involve 'the engine' rather than the wider Access application?
UPDATE
I just got a reply from a member of Microsoft's Access Team:
Access Database Engine is a generic term that could refer to either ACE or Jet depending upon context. Access Connectivity Engine (ACE) refers to the codebase that ships as part of Office starting with Access 2007. [The 'A' in 'ACE'] does refer to Access, the Microsoft product.