The number one muck up I have observed in coding, is programmers creating functions or tools that leave off the final "else" clause at the end of a conditional logic tree. That is, programming logic error examples, such as:
You expect users to weigh platinum by the pound; someone will try to weigh chicken necks by the ounce. You expect users to pay in Dollars, Punds, Yen, Franc, Lire and Marks; someone will try to pay in Real. You expect users to pick a State; they live in Canada and need Provinces. You expect 5-digit numerical Zip; UK users have 6-char alpha/numeric mixed. You execute a cart in English, Japanese and Spanish; a user is visually impaired and speaks native Dutch. You build online tech support live chat 8AM-8PM EST; only to find 23% of users log in from Eastern Europe in off hours. Every function you write, every tool you develop has to be prepared to accept and deal with wrong information or input out of your expected bounds. Incomplete function logic tree I have seen many times: if dollars do this elseif yen do this elseif marks do this else pounds do this end if When tighter functions and logic need to be fashioned like so: if dollars do this elseif yen do this elseif marks do this elseif pounds do this else unknown currency raise user error flag end if This one precuationary step alone will CYA so many times you may appear teflon. Warmest regards, Peter Sawczynec Technology Dir. Sun-code.com Web related services 646.316.3678 [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ New York PHP Community Talk Mailing List http://lists.nyphp.org/mailman/listinfo/talk NYPHPCon 2006 Presentations Online http://www.nyphpcon.com Show Your Participation in New York PHP http://www.nyphp.org/show_participation.php
