You can deploy your Microsoft Access application either with the full version of Access or with the Access Runtime (see Deploying Applications Using the Access Runtime).

Are you fed up with calling a company and finding yourself speaking to somebody in a foreign country? 

I am, and I've just learned of an effective way to fight back, help return jobs to America, and keep them here.

The best part? We don't have to wait for government to do a thing.

DFDs document a process by documenting the flow of data throughout the process. They depict how data interacts with a system. They can be used to engineer a new process, document an existing process, or re-engineer an existing process.

Semi-official home page for UML. Includes the UML specification.

Have you download the UML 2.0 specification yet? If not, why?

• Just do-it! -- http://www.omg.org/technology/documents/modeling_spec_catalog.htm#UML

By Reference or Value
For parameters, you can optionally specify ByVal or ByRef. ByRef is the default if you don't specify.

Function SomeRoutine(ByRef pPerson, ByVal pName, Age)

How do you find last Monday? I want to return a date for last Monday or today if today is Monday.

While Weekday(ADate) <> vbMonday
     ADate = DateAdd("d", -1, ADate)
WEnd

You could wrap this up in a function as follows: 

Function SU_GetLastDOW(ADate, AWeekDayConst)
    While Weekday(ADate) <> AWeekDayConst
        ADate = DateAdd("d", -1, ADate)
    WEnd
    
    SU_GetLastDOW = ADate
End Function

In C#, you use the class keyword to specify a class and you signify its parent with a colon and the name of the parent class. When you instantiate an object from a class, you use the new keyword.

In C# you can set the visibility of a member field to any visibility: private, protected, public, internal or protected internal. You can intialize a member field with a default when declared. If you set the member field value in your constructor, it will override the default value. Finally, you can use the static modifier (no instance required) and readonly modifier (similar to a constant).

Literals are quoted as in "Prestwood". If you need to embed a quote use a slash in front of the quote as in \". 

Console.WriteLine("Hello");
Console.WriteLine("Hello \"Mike\".");

//Does C# evaluate this simple

//floating point math correctly? No! 

if ((0.1 + 0.1 + 0.1) == 0.3)
{
  MessageBox.Show("Correct");
}
else
{
  MessageBox.Show("Not correct");
}

How do you resolve the UserID of a user when using ASP.NET 2.0's built in Membership utility?

//GetUser() returns current user information
MembershipUser myUser = Membership.GetUser();

  

//Returns the UserID and converts to a string
string UserID = myUser.ProviderUserKey.ToString();

C++ is case sensitive. In C and C++ commands and variable names are case sensitive.

The following first standard C++ snippet works:

printf("hello\n");

Printf("hello\n"); //>>>Does not work!

Use two forward slashes to represent a single line comment:

// This is a C++ style single line comment.

You can also use multiple line comments:

/*
This is a mutliple line comment. This
syntax is borrowed from C.
*/

It's rare, but sometimes it may be necessary to remove the BDE from a machine. Not for the faint of heart, and with serious possible consequences, we explain how to manually uninstall the BDE. This is intended for developers or power users.

Although titled "Interview Questions," this article provides a good list of ASP .NET concepts in an ordered, question and answer format.  Working through it would be a good way to bone up - or refresh - your understanding of ASP .NET.

The answers are brief and concise;   and several contain links to additional information.

MS SQL Express 2008 with Management Studio Basic. MS SQL 2008 database management tool only available bundled.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express with Tools (SQL Server 2008 Express) is the free version of SQL Server Express that includes graphical management tools. SQL Server 2008 Express with Tools has all of the features in SQL Server 2008 Express, plus includes SQL Server 2008 Management Studio Basic for managing MS SQL 2008 databases.

Note: Requires Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 SP1.

What about MS SQL 2005?

The MS SQL 2005 Enterprise Manager is available as a separate download:

• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Management Studio Express

Lots here!  Interbase TV is part of CodeGear's developer network. Contains both audios and videos.

Yes. Use the DESC keyword in your order by clause on each column you want ordered descending. Use ASC for ascending.

select * from Customer 

Order by Age Desc, City Asc, State Asc

This code snippet shows you how to get your NIC MAC address using Borland Delphi.

Microsoft's various COM technologies allow developers to write programs that can interoperate with other programs.  This is great stuff!

Not surprisingly, Delphi makes it pretty easy to work with OLE, Active-X, OCX, etc.

But there's a nasty surprise awaiting you when you try to do this in a DLL you're creating, possibly even in a different thread of an executable, too.

Here we expose the problem - and the solution.

In Delphi, use the constructor keyword to signify which method or methods are constructors for a class. It is traditional but not required to use a procedure called Create.

In addition to having multiple named constructors, you can overload constructors.

//Interface section.

TCyborg = class(TObject)
public
  constructor Create;
end; 

Then implement the class constructor in the Implementation section.

constructor TCyborg.Create;
begin
  inherited;  //Call the parent Create method

end;

Camel casing capitalizes the first character of each word except the first word, it can frequently resemble a camel. Used by many languages including Paradox's ObjectPAL and Java.

myAge

theBoxCar

Pascal casing capitalizes the first character of each word (including acronyms over two letters in length).

TheHtmlCode

CAStatePercent

Unlike languages such as C++ and Object Pascal, every line of code written in Java must occur within a class.

//Declare class.

public class Cyborg {

  //Fields.

  private String cyborgName;

  private int age;

  //Constructor.

  public Person() {

  cyborgName = "unknown";

  age = 0;

  }

}

//Create object from class.

Cyborg p = new Cyborg();

p.getClass(); //From the Object base class.

The Eclipse IDE for Java Developers contains what you need to build Java applications. Considered by many to be the best Java development tool available, the Eclipse IDE for Java Developers provides superior Java editing with validation, incremental compilation, cross-referencing, code assist; an XML Editor; Mylyn; and much more.

Free video tutorials by Mark Dexter.

Common comparison operators:

==	equal
!=	not equal
<	less than
>	greater than
<=	less than or equal
>=	greater than or equal

//Does JavaScript evaluate the math correctly? No!

if (.1 + .1 + .1 == .3) {
  document.write("correct");
}
else {
  document.write("not correct");
}

The same way you do with HTML. Here is a simple example:

<%
Dim MyName
MyName = "Mike Prestwood"
%>
<script language="javascript">
<!--
document.write('Hi <%=MyName%>')
-->
</script>

Carry a portable Linux version with you on a USB flash pen drive. Bring your portable desktop with you wherever you go.

USB Linux installation enables you to install a portable Linux operating system on a flash drive or USB key no larger than your thumb. This portable Linux version can then be run from any computer that can boot from a flash device, allowing you to bring your operating system, desktop, applications, files, e-mail, personal settings, favorites and more with you. It’s like having your own personal operating system you can carry in your pocket.

Covers ALL Paradox tables from version 4 on including a description of the various Paradox table structures, limits, and specifications.

Cliff's Corner by Cliff Suttle: Feb/Mar/Apr edition.

ObjectPAL is a non-OOP language (an object-based language) that offers custom methods and custom procedures. When you create a custom method, you associate it with an existing object like a button, form, or library.

When calling a custom method or procedure that has a by reference parameter (uses var), then you cannot use a literal value. this is different than in many other languages which do allow you to pass literals by reference.

method sayHello(var pName String)
 msgInfo("", "Hello " + pName)
endMethod
 

method add(p1 Number, p2 Number) Number
 Return p1 + p2
endMethod

Documents include a Paradox bugslist, list of Paradox versions and Service Pack downloads, Error messages explained and more.This site is in Swedish but there are a couple of documents that are in English.

I recently upgraded to Windows XP and now Paradox 11 cannot open SQL Server database tables. In the open-dialog-box, I see the aliases, but cannot select one which is linked to a SQL server database. The same thing happens, trying to create a QBE query, new form, etc... All existing queries, forms, ... are working (using these aliases).

Solution was to apply the latest BDE patch, all works as it should.

Literals are quoted as in "Prestwood".  If you need to embed a quote use a slash in front of the quote as in \". 

With Perl, you simply copy your files to a web server that is capable of running Perl pages.

In PHP you can use quotes, or apostraphies as in "Prestwood", and 'Prestwood'. Use a slash in front of a quote or apostrophe to embed same type as in \' and \".

In .PHPhtml pages, you embed PHP code between <?PHP and ?>.

For PHP, JavaScript, Java,and C++, I prefer to put the first { at the end of the first line of the code block as in the example above because I see morePHP codeformatted that way (and on PHP.Net).

PHP Alternative Syntax

Although I don't like to use it, PHP offers an alternative syntax for if, while, for, foreach, and switch. These code blocks are surrounded by statement ending keywords that all use End with camel caps such as endif, endwhile, endfor, endforeach,and endswitch.

<?PHP

$x = "Yes";

//Simple if

If ($x == "Yes")
  echo "hello world";

//If with a block of code.

If ($x == "Yes") {
  echo "Hello world";

  echo "I am a PHP coder!";

}

?>

Great message board software (PHP to MySQL). We used the UBB perl version from 2000 through 2005 on www.PrestwoodBoards.com.

Includes:

Unlimited Forums Integrated Portal Integrated Photo Gallery (UBB.Gallery) Database Backend Fully Templated RSS Syndication of content Unlimited Subforums CAPTCHA* many more!
* CAPTCHA requires GD2 with FreeType to be available to PHP, or ImageMagick 6.

Advertise on the Prestwood family of websites. A one month ad on a single group's home page is $25. Two or more months is $20 per month. A one month ad for all pages of a single group is $75. Two or more months is $65 per month. Your ad will show on all "appropriate" group pages including the group home page, group knowledge base home page, group message board home page, all knowledge base posts, and all message board posts.

Prism supports abstract class members and abstract classes using the abstract keyword. An abstract class is a class with one or more abstract members and you cannot instantiate an abstract class. However, you can have additional implemented methods and properties. An abstract member is either a method (method, procedure, or function), a property, or an event in an abstract class. You can add abstract members ONLY to abstract classes using the abstract keyword. Alternatively, you can use the empty keyword in place of abstract if you wish to instantiate the abstract class.

General Info: Programming Literals

A value directly written into the source code of a computer program (as opposed to an identifier like a variable or constant). Literals cannot be changed. Common types of literals include string literals, floating point literals, integer literals, and hexidemal literals. Literal strings are usually either quoted (") or use an apostrophe (') which is often referred to as a single quote. Sometimes quotes are inaccurately referred to as double quotes.

Languages Focus: Literals

In addition to understanding whether to use a quote or apostrophe for string literals, you also want to know how to specify and work with other types of literals including floating point literals. Some compilers allow leading and trailing decimals (.1 + .1), while some require a leading or trailing 0 as in (0.1 + 0.1). Also, because floating point literals are difficult for compilers to represent accurately, you need to understand how the compiler handles them and how to use rounding and trimming commands correctly for the nature of the project your are coding.

x := .1 + .1;     //Does work.

x := 0.1 + 0.1;   //Does work.

MessageBox.Show('Hello');
MessageBox.Show("Hello");
 
//Example of embedding quotes and apostropes:
MessageBox.Show('He said, "Who''s computer?"');

MessageBox.Show("She said, ""Mike's computer"".");

This page provides an overview of basic language incompatibilities between the Delphi for Win32 and Delphi Prism languages. The focus here is to list language features of Delphi that do not exist in the same form or syntax for Delphi Prism, making it easy for Delphi developers to find the appropriate equivalent syntax or otherwise work around the difference. The goal is not to list new features present in Delphi Prism that do not exist in Delphi, as this would exceed the scope of this page.

No. For existing VCL.Net based applications I recommend you stick with Delphi 2007 until it's time to convert it to Delphi Prism.

There are several programs that allow you to mount an ISO image file and this free one seems to work well on Windows XP and Vista. CloneDrive also supports other common image formats such as BIN, CCD, etc.

I have several Windows 2000 Servers, should I upgrad them? I have to setup a new server, should I install another Windows 2000 Server or dive into Windows 2003? What about Windows Server 2008?

We currently recommend at least Windows Server 2003 and actually prefer Windows Server 2008 because too much "new" software just does not install on Windows 2000 Server. For example, Quickbooks 2009 database install requires Windows Server 2003 or higher.

VB Classic is not case sensitive. If you type any other case for commands or variables, VB Classicwill change it to the "accepted" or "defined" case. For example, if you type msgbox it is converted to MsgBox.

The following code works:

MsgBox ("hello")

In VB.Net you can set the visibility of a member field to any visibility: private, protected, public, friend or protected friend.

You can intialize a member field with a default when declared. If you set the member field value in your constructor, it will override the default value.

Finally, you can use the Shared modifier (no instance required) and ReadOnly modifier (similar to a constant).

Use a destructor to free unmanaged resources. A destructor is a method with the same name as the class but preceded with a tilde (as in ~ClassName). The destructor implicity creates an Object.Finalize method (you cannot directly call nor override the Object.Finalize method).

In VB.Net you cannot explicitly destroy an object. Instead, the .Net Frameworks garbage collector (GC) takes care of destroying all objects. The GC destroys the objects only when necessary. Some situations of necessity are when memory is exhausted or you explicitly call the System.GC.Collect method. In general, you never need to call  System.GC.Collect.

Variables are case sensitive but VS.Net will auto-fix your variable names to the defined case. You can declare variables in-line wherever you need them and declarative variable assignment is supported.

Dim FullName As String
Dim Age As Integer
Dim Weight As Double
FullName = "Mike Prestwood"
Age = 32
Weight = 154.4
'Declaritive variable assignment: 
Dim Married As String = "Y"
MsgBox(Married)

Provides browser statistics including most common browsers, operating systems, display resolutions, etc. Information includes a brief historical overview of each and contains current information on browsers. This is a great resource for determining what browsers to design for, test on, as well as determining what resolutions, color depths, etc.

I've created a web application using v3.5 of the .NET Framework.  But, when I go to deploy it, I find only versions 1.x and 2.x in the ASP .NET dropdown for IIS configuration of my application's virtual directory.  Where is v3.5?  How do I deploy if that's not a configuration choice?

It's not there. You see, v3.5 isn't really a "version" in Microsoft's eyes. 3.5 builds upon v2, and is really considered an incarnation of v2.  Sounds crazy, doesn't it? Not to worry, though, you can still deploy your v3.5 app.  There are just two things that must be done:

1. The .NET Framework, v3.5 must be installed on the server.
2. When configuring your application's virtual folder in IIS, choose the v2.x from the ASP .NET version dropdown. 

You'll find this in IIS on the ASP .NET tab of the Properties dialog for your app's virtual directory.

This is our community rules and disclaimers page. You are welcome to use it for your website. You will most likely want to update it a bit as it's pretty specific to our website.

Optimize your Windows performance by disabling unused Windows Services.

Vista targets consumers so it does have limits. Vista Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate OS support 2 physical CPUs; others support one only. There is no limit on the cores. So, for example, you could have 2 physical CPUs with 2 cores each and Vista Business will fully utilize all four processors. If you need more, use the Windows server OSes.