Thursday, August 4, 2016

The Lost Realm of Best Practices

First the good news.


Today's developer community seems to have gotten the bug to search out "Best Practices". Probably they try to implement them, but that's beyond my ability to assess, so let's call that one my "Best Guesstimate on Standard Practices".


Now the bad news.


The Realm of Best Practices is in the same place you will find Nirvana, the Lost Realm of Cardolan, Álfheimr, Asphodel Meadows and a nice little cottage with a small dock by the lake.


It's possibly worth the effort to look for it if you happen to be searching for enlightenment, fighting orcs and demons, or even just waiting out eternity. Just don't give up your day job while searching for it.


Sometimes, just good enough is, well, just good enough. And all we really need to do our jobs well, I submit, is to make things work out as good as we can.


If there's a better way to parse a text string than bog-standard:


 Split([ImportField1], ",")


well, then, so be it. I'm not going to waste my time fretting about it. If you want to share YOUR version, I'll listen attentively and maybe even adopt it next time.


If I can get the same results with an In() clauses as I can with Or'ed parameters, I'm not going to stop and ask BingGoogle for advice. Of course, with that one, it's probably not quite so simple as all that. Sometimes an In() clause isn't very efficient. On the other hand, if my code with an  In() clause works, doesn't drag like a flat tire on an overloaded hay wagon, and gets the right results, I'm good enough with that. I have a handy alternative or two in my tool kit, if need be. I'm just not going to burn my time and my client's money looking for the magic sauce of a Best Practice. Note I said "magic" not "secret". And yes, that's about how I see it. Your metaphor may vary.