Risk Management Cowpathing with Microsoft Access How do you decide where to spend your software development dollars? Don't guess what your users need, let them show you with Access.
Commentary 3 Benefits of Writing Code Backwards Ignore those compile errors and start writing your calling code before your routines. This approach has many benefits.
Commentary Access Dataverse Connector Did you ever think to yourself, "I wish there was a way to make my back-end data less flexible *and* less powerful?" Good news; your wait is over!
Commentary Let's Make Access More Version-Control Friendly Hey! Wouldn't it be great if Access was version-control friendly out of the box? If you agree, head over to the Access feedback portal and vote for my request.
Commentary How to Request New Features for Microsoft Access After a long and conspicuous absence, Microsoft has finally published a new website where you can submit and vote on feature requests.
Commentary 5 Types of Documentation Each type of documentation has unique strengths and weaknesses. Knowing when and how to use each is an important skill for every developer.
Commentary Eliminating Friction The key to becoming a better developer is to make it so The Right Way is also The Easy Way.
Conventions Naming Conventions Matter: Making Wrong Code Look Wrong Joel Spolsky and Antonin Scalia join forces to help illustrate the importance of sensible code naming conventions.
UX Simple vs. Easy It's not easy to build simple software. These 4 simple tips will make the process easier.
Commentary The Software Reliability Paradox The most reliable software holds the potential to cause the greatest harm. Examples abound, from my own $86K mistake to a devastating Russian hack.
Commentary Access vs. Enterprise Software: A False Choice Beware of strawman arguments against Microsoft Access.
Commentary Evolution of a Business Application Before you commission that custom web application project, it pays to validate that the business process even warrants such a significant investment.
Commentary Microsoft and VBA: A Love(less) Story Whatever happened to the passion Microsoft once had for VBA? From love story to marriage of convenience, this article is one weird ride.
Commentary Don't Write Clever Code There are two problems with clever code. 1) The next person might not know what you were doing. 2) They might not know if *you* knew what you were doing.
Commentary Microsoft Access's Multiple Personality Disorder The dual nature of Access–and the ignorance of this reality–is a major source of the shade that "real programmers" throw its way.
Commentary The Two Keys to Building Great Access Applications The best Access applications prioritize data discovery and efficiency.
Commentary Join Me at Access DevCon 2021 I will be presenting the about-to-be-released TwinBasic project from vbWatchdog developer, Wayne Phillips. Join me on April 22-23.
Commentary Some Bugs are Better than Others Not all bugs are created equal. Avoid the expensive ones by making more of the ones that are easy to find and fix.
Commentary Reducing Lost Code Recovery Time How do you reduce your recovery time when you've lost a bunch of code you just wrote? To misquote Bart Simpson, "Version control, my man."
Commentary Recovering From Code Loss Access just crashed while you were writing code. When you last saved will determine how long it takes to recover, but it's not a linear relationship.
Commentary You're Not an Impostor You're good enough, you're smart enough, and doggone it, people like you.
Risk Management Mail: An Allegory Behold, the world's greatest literary allegory since George Orwell penned "Animal Farm."
Commentary Declaration of Database Design Altering the schema of a production database is not a step to be taken lightly. But when requirements dictate, it must be done.
Commentary Access Migrations Data migrations are high risk operations. You can't prepare for every pitfall, but a good plan will maximize your chances of success.
Commentary How It's Always Been Done Good programmers know how to code. Great programmers know why. The best programmers question why.