[AccessD] The list

I think that I'm with Hans-Christian on this topic, which is to say, we
might invigorate the site by adding more lists, each devoted to a
programming language, and perhaps more narrowly, a language oriented
towards databases.

For example, I'm currently learning two new languages/products: Alpha Five
and Javascript. I'm very much a newbie in the former; I'm let's say an
Intermediate in Javascript.

My interest in these two languages is due to their usefulness in the realm
of cross-platform and cross-media (web, phones and tablets, and also PC
desktops).

In this light, and taking into consideration Susan's notion of a list
devoted to Office, it might be prudent to re-orient the AccessD list to VBA
development, which might invite new threads and new members. For example, I
know of one company with multiple employees whose entire mission is Excel
VBA. I've done some significant work entirely in Excel VBA, but would
hardly call myself an expert. What I have managed to accomplish in Office
Automation VBA has mostly to do with creation and population of Word
documents based on templates, with some (I think) cool stuff that finds
bookmarks in the Word template, then creates tables there and populates
them with an unknown number of rows. My next revision of this code will be
to find another bookmark, and there plant pictures based on stored
references to their location.

Helen Fedemma has some nice stuff on these lines. Her articles about
integrating Access with Outlook and Excel are quite illuminating -- even
though I seldom use Outlook (except when doing something for a client who
uses it), but I have learned a number of slick tricks from her stuff on
Access+Excel.

Other candidate lists might include Ruby on Rails (RoR), Python and Dot Net
Nuke (DNN), to name just three. Interested listers might want to vote Y or
N on these, and also add languages of your current interest.

Each of these ought to have a place where listers can post code/application
examples, much as Helen does on her site.

Finally, I think that we should have a page that lists sites deemed useful
and relevant, such as Helen's and Allen Browne's sites. That way, our site
could act as a hub, pointing our listers to sites that go into more detail
on some specific language; similar to the Access Circle, but encompassing
more languages/products.

Another thought, which is cross-language, is Code Reviews. Many and perhaps
most listers here work independently, and therefore are unable to do two of
the most valuable processes in programming: code reviews and Extreme
Programming (XP). On the other hand, many organizations large enough to
afford code reviews and XP are limited to the employees currently under
hire.

Whenever I'm stymied by some particular problem in coding, I try to find a
fresh pair of eyes to look at the code. I can't tell you how many times I
have learned something by inviting someone to visit my code and comment
upon it (e.g. Replace all this code with a loop whose increment may be
determines at RunTime").


On Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 1:38 PM, John Bartow <john at winhaven.net> wrote:

> We discussed that a while ago and the thought was to use the Tech list for
> that. But it has been quite a while. I suppose we should have another board
> meeting someday...
>
>