At 16:36 -0500 19/01/02, Kurt Griffin wrote: >I agree with Jakob that you should always set the itemdelimeter before use,
Good we agree on that. >but not setting it back to its previous value is a bit like leaving orphaned >objects in memory... It is so difficult for me to find the right answer to this. the comparison does not compute. Both cases is about leaving the environment changed, that's right. But one thing is like leaving a door open or closed, and everybody knows what a door is, and how to check its state before penetrating it. Orphaned objects is about making irreversible damage to the environment in places where nobody else has a chance to anticipate the damage or even verify that it's there with normal instruments, or in any way remedy the damage, so it's more like spreading atomic radiation. >if you affect a change in the environment, you should >clean up behind yourself. This is not to say that not setting the >itemdelimiter before use is not sloppy coding (or using 3 "nots" in one >sentence is not sloppy grammar), but as they say in the woods, "pack out >what you pack in". Even if I do appreciate your argument, the same thing happens: The focus shifts from "set it first" to "reset it it afterwards". Which in practice means that the advice shifts from a concept that is safe, to a concept that is unsafe and based on skewed premises. That is: "That you can be sporadic in setting first, if you're adamant in resetting after." If you can find a way to say: 1: Always set the itemDelimiter before use 2: And, it's helpful to reset it, but it's a hack that *may* or may *not* fix something fundamentally flawed. Without loosing focus of the first rule, then fine. Jakob [To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping with programming Lingo. Thanks!]
