At 05/08/2002 10:16 AM (Wednesday), Woody wrote:

>To me, this is the same type of argument as not using goto's or exit's or
>break's. There are times when they are useful, not all the time, of course,
>but sometimes they can improve the flow or logic of certain situations. Just
>because you can do something different, doesn't always mean you should. I
>consider it more of a personal preference than a "don't ever do this" type
>of scenario.

I think what you are seeing is a rule of thumb which Helen has elevated to
a more general rule based on her experience. You can use it as a
recommendation, or a guideline, or as gospel as you see fit.

I've learned the hard way that usually specifying the exact field list I
need in any context is a better way of doing things. I also use Delphi like
Helen does, so perhaps some of this is related to it's peculiarities
regarding persistent field objects, etc. Regardless of the tools you use,
however, I have found that the shortcuts which appear convenient, in the
end are not always to my benefit.

Every time we fashion a query within an application we are faced with this
seemingly minor decision. The more experienced and serious you are about
your work the more you pay attention to these "minor" decisions because you
know that making the wrong decision, while not cataclysmic, can cause
problems later.

Often people feel the same way about code formatting conventions. What some
feel is an ironclad rule for formatting, based on what makes the code
vastly easier for them to understand, is but a suggested guideline to
another. As for me, if you make me format my code other than how I'm used
to then you have to pay extra for my extra effort to deal`(2�h it in that
form, so add an extra 10% to the work estimate!