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Problem Solving 101: First, Understand the Problem
The Null Solution In my previous article, Collaborative Problem Solving, I talked about the importance of questioning assumptions and reconfirming your understanding of the problem when you hit a brick...
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Concatenating Strings – You’re still doing it wrong.
A common anti-pattern I see from novice programmers is the tendency to read a coding tip somewhere, assume it to be a universal truth, and immediately start applying it everywhere in their code without...
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Usability Hall of Shame – AutoCorrect
Cupertino, we have a problem. Q: How do you know when your software has a usability problem? A: When someone creates an entire humor site dedicated to mocking it. Okay, you might have said something...
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How to join on memo fields in Microsoft Access
Rambling Intro, Nostalgia, and Crankiness This week I got a request troubleshoot a legacy Microsoft Access application that has been floating around our company for ages, but still gets used daily...
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Replacing multiple spaces in a string with a single space in SQL
After reading Jeff Moden’s article “Replace Multiple Spaces with One” describing an approach to collapse white space in a string, I was troubled by the need for a temporary placeholder. I’m generally...
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Adding combo-box style dropdowns to your web page
Announcing the Improved Dropdown jQuery plugin! I’m happy to announce that I’ve released a new jQuery plugin today that will enable web page authors to create a richer user experience than is offered...
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Quick Tip: Comparing a .NET string to multiple values
The Problem Do you ever wish you could use the SQL IN operator in your C# code to make your conditional blocks more concise and your code easier to read? Perhaps it’s just my persnickety nature, but I...
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5 Best Practices for Commenting Your Code
One of the first things you learn to do incorrectly as a programmer is commenting your code. My experience with student and recently graduated programmers tells me that college is a really good place...
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How to diff two folders from a Windows command prompt
In most cases where I need to compare two folders recursively on a Windows system I use my go-to tool Beyond Compare. It is an excellent utility, and one that I think should be among the first...
View ArticleAnnual Performance Evaluations for Programmers
Here is a template I use as a development manager. Please note that the categories are mandated by the company and are scored on a 1-5 scale (5 is highest) and then averaged for an overall score. The...
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