From: "Doug Chamberlin" <DChamberlin@...>

>
> 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.
>

Ah, you see, there is the dilemma. I gave up using persistent fields a long
time ago because of their uselessness, AFAIAC. I can do anything a
persistent field can do without worrying about changing them everytime I
lengthen a string field or whatever. If you right run-time code, you don't
have to worry about it. Therefore, which way is better? Oh, and I use Delphi
5 and I still don't see the reasoning behind the recommendation.

You are right that shortcuts usually don't end up being shortcuts in the
long run, but this goes beyond that, I think. Maintaining full select
queries through a program that has many forms and units becomes more of a
chore and a headache, especially for some other programmer when the
underlying table definitions are changed if you must specify each field
individually. If you are the only one working on a program, such as myself,
it becomes a little easier since you know where these queries are, but
someone unfamiliar with the program could spend hours or days looking
through all code to find the inconsistencies.

Woody (TMW)