Version Control - No Longer Set

Connecting to GitHub from TortoiseHg Using SSH Keys

Step-by-step instructions to set up a completely seamless integration between TortoiseHg and GitHub. No passwords. No Pageant. No friction of any kind.

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.

Version Control

Learn to Love Text-Based Version Control with "Highlights for Children"

Why use text-based version control for visual objects like forms and reports? I'll tell you why, but first, find all the differences between these two pictures...

Version Control

A Quick, Free Way to Try Version Control with Microsoft Access

Curious about getting started with version control in Microsoft Access, but don't want to commit a lot of time or money? This could be just the solution for you.

AutoHotKey

Streamlining SaveAsText / LoadFromText

SaveAsText and LoadFromText are indispensable for Access version control. They're also annoying to type repeatedly. Let's fix that.

Version Control

Reverting Unwanted Changes

Using Version Control in Access is like having a time machine that makes it easy to undo design mistakes. Here's a quick overview of the process.

Version Control

It's All About the Diff

How can you figure out what you changed on a form when you can't remember changing anything on that form? Version control, of course.

Version Control

Peace of Mind from Version Control

"Do you want to save your changes?" No, not if I just added temporary debugging code. But, Yes, if I also added production code. What to do?

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."

Version Control

Tracking Schema Changes

If it can cause a bug in your software, you should be tracking it in version control. Database schema changes absolutely fall into that category.

Version Control

Migrating Mercurial

I had to update the settings file for 120 Mercurial repositories. I saved hours of tedium using a regex in the "Find in Files" feature of Notepad++.

Signal vs. Noise

When Good Comments Go Bad

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

Code Library

Code Library Updates

Q: How do you manage updates to code library modules? A: Version control and backward compatibility zealotry.

Version Control

Scraps of Wood and Code

Resisting the packrat mentality.

Version Control

Access Version Control: My Philosophy

These rules are intended as a guiding philosophy. If I'm getting closer to meeting this vision, I know I'm moving in the right direction.

Version Control

Putting It All Together

I expanded on the original decompose.vbs script. The code below is the culmination of more than 50 individual changes and tweaks over 10+ years.

Version Control

Exporting Queries for Version Control

SaveAsText will export queries to text files, but calling those files "human-readable" is a stretch.

Version Control

Tracking Table Structure Changes

Another potential source of bugs is changes to the structures of our tables. This includes both local tables and linked tables that reside in our back-end.

Version Control

Referencing references

While we can use the VBA user interface to display the references, we can't rely on that approach if we want to automate exporting our Access binary file to text files. Luckily, there is a solution.

Version Control

Tables to Text: Do it for the DVCS!

Anything that can lead to a bug in your software belongs in version control. That includes local tables with design-time data.

Hidden Features

Wherefore art thou, database properties?

In my previous post, I talked about adding custom properties to the database object. I covered how to do it, but did not go into any detail about why you might want to do it. Let's remedy that now.

Hidden Features

Database Properties for Thee

The DAO Database object has a Properties collection. You can read through the list of properties to extract saved database options. You can also add your own properties to the object.

Version Control

From Gibberish to Clarity

So, how can we compare those database properties? By iterating through the database's .Properties collection, of course. Here is some sample code from my modified decompose.vbs script.

Version Control

The Starting Point

Before we can use a DVCS with our Access application, we need to convert the binary Access file into a series of text files. The best place to start (and where my journey began) is with this StackOverflow answer.