Question Decompile (1 Viewer)

[mcgilla]

Hello Everyone.

At work, i've developed a database that is used on our production floor and it's working quite well for our needs. I'm using Front End/Back End on a file server since I do not have a SQL backend. Everything is office 2010 and Windows 7 on the desktop environment.

I've used quite a bit of the knowledge found on this forum to do some nice things. Like automatically updating the front end when I decide to push my updates, etc. Killing the application after 15-20 minutes of inactivity, etc.

So, as this thing has grown and I'm working on updates that take more time to develop and debug, my users are opening (and often automatically closing) the database several times a day. Which tends to generate some bugs on its own that is often easily fixed by running the database with the /decompile switch.

Now my question is.. Since I can automatically update the database when I push it, decompile is one of the steps I do to prep the database before updating it to the general population. Should I change where I save the database and possibly just put a short cut on the desktop with the /decompile switch as part of it so that every time it opens it's doing what I do to remedy possible errors that develop over time.

I know this enlarges the database, but that will be fixed with every update I push because I compact it before updating it as well.

Thoughts? Pro's? Con's?

TIA

Ed

 

[MarkK]

You're saying you know that /decompile causes database bloat? I'm not sure that's true. I think bloat is space occupied by temporary data structures that are eventually destroyed, but since the file is in use that disk space can't be de-allocated. I don't know that for a fact, but I doubt that bloat is cause by decompilation of VBA. AutoCAD ships with Microsoft's VBA too and it doesn't bloat. Excel files don't bloat do they?

For databases in development I add a /decompile switch to every shortcut, so they decompile every time I start. I've never noticed an ill effect.

Cheers,
Mark

 

[Pat Hartman]

Corruption happens during development as you make changes. Based on personal experience, I'm convinced that some cruel programmer put a counter behind the scenes that keeps track of how many times you change a form. When you reach the limit, he knows that you are an idiot and so corrupts your code in the hope that you'll give up Access and take up knitting. FE's in production don't corrupt because objects are not changed and if for some reason they do, you would just replace the file with a fresh copy from the server.