geraldew

commentary on why I'm only interested in finding/using software when it is Open Source

an example of the sort of code I write in my day job

this posting is not intended for general reading as it is just some open sharing of notes about code reworking

a broad description of a method that would allow users to run full Linux with no changes to their existing computer

descriptions of how surrogateescape allows for recovering invalid byte sequences in strings of unspecified encoding

annotated notes from converting a 2,000 line SQL script

an annotated real example of SQL for finding extreme date values on a Teradata system

Are there actually significant distinctions between the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the Open Source Initiative (OSI) in terms of the licenses they approve?

a description of some Python functions I wrote for use in one program that maybe presents a useful idea for other situations

a walking tour through a problem and its fix

an exploration of thoughts about program descriptions and their implementations

Annotation of my process for making a Combobox that uses key-value pairs instead of just single values

an attempt to explain copyright first and then place Free and Open Source Software in that context

A Python way of handling Settings that supports Enumerations and has Saving and Loading with JSON

a way to securely embed a credential to be supplied with a program when it gets put somewhere else for scheduled running

Summarising my week in code - and a whole lot of VBA DAO code examples

description of a mistake I repeatedly make when using Tkinter in Python and its general solution

Taking the issue of SQL dates and month differences a bit further

the fine art of staring at nothing - also fun with Python and filename encodings

From 1989 to the Present

a personal summary of character encoding issues and history

a time log and thoughts while running Windows 10 update on a rarely used setup

A personal recollection of programming

why derive your own solutions versus looking them up online

some observations that for fun I have dressed up as "laws"

An example of a Parent-Children Data Form using minimal imports

an example of using SQL to work out where there are gaps between date ranges in a table

example SQL to derive subsequences according to when some value in a table changes or stays the same

An example of recursive querying following chains of linked records. Of note, is that it implements a concept of controlled following by link types.

The goal here is to create a fully-functional forever-updateable system. This is a tech person's guide, for sharing with other tech folk. I'm not attempting to make this completely newbie friendly