Signal vs. Noise - No Longer Set

Signal vs. Noise: ShowPlan.out Edition

Reading showplan.out files can be intimidating for new and experienced Access developers alike. This simple rule will help get you started.

Each type of documentation has unique strengths and weaknesses. Knowing when and how to use each is an important skill for every developer.

To boost our signal to noise ratio, we can increase our lines of meaningful code or decrease the lines of boilerplate.

Bad actors carry out disinformation campaigns to poison our discourse. But when we write code, sometimes we're the bad actors.

One of the keys to being a good developer is to make the *easy way* also be the *right way*. Exhibit A: the ControlIsBlank() function.

I don't use Me.Dirty = False in my #msaccess code. I wrap it up and call it from a "guard clause" instead.

My approach to software development in four words: Less noise. More signal.