[Webdev] ? include ( was Re: Webdev digest, Vol 1 #386 - 6 msgs)

[Philip Reynolds]

adam beecher's [lists at spamfilter.cc] 25 lines of wisdom included:
> > ..compared to the cost of riding around on a sleigh pulled by 9
> > reindeer and visiting every child on this planet within 24
> > hours.. getting silly now.
> >
> Jinge bells, Santa smells...
> 
> The other reason I haven't commented about the topic in hand is because I
> think most of the stuff that's been posted over the last few days is utter
> bollocks. Which of course is absolutely wrong. And also absolutely right.
> But wrong. But right.
> 
> In other words, best practise programming is about common sense. People have
> defined rules, but they're ultimately just guidelines that have developed
> out of common sense. And sometimes they're generated because someone broke
> the rules.
> 
> Use your head and you'll be fine AJ. You want to make it scalable? Plan
> ahead. That's all you need to know.

OO Metrics and paradigms, don't fit in with all programming
practices, especially not PHP ones.

PHP especially isn't designed to be as scalable as possible, it's a
web scripting langauge and most people don't use it for much else.
Consider critical code that has to be built upon time and time
again and working with 10 other developers.

It's more about software engineering and I don't think one person
hacking a bit of code is really what these rules and lessons were
taught for.

At the end of the day, if you're the only person going to be
reading/writing your code, you write it whatever damn way you want.

Aside from that, I'd be wary about calling these techniques
bollocks :)  They are pitfalls trained software developers fell into
and are now trying to pass on.

Personally these topics can range from fascinating to "I'd prefer to
watch paint dry". The best thing you can actually do, is be _aware_
of all the benefits and techniques out there and then make an
educated choice. You can obviously decide to ignore device as you
wish, but at least that decision will be a learned one. 

The other possibility is to make an ignorant decision. Decide to
ignore the advice because of time constraints in reading/learning
it, learning curve or complete disinterest. This isn't the kind of
thing I'd be advising developers in industry to be doing :)

-- 
  Philip Reynolds        
   RFC Networks          tel: 01 8832063
www.rfc-networks.ie      fax: 01 8832041