In article <10lmdtj$3cdnh$2@dont-email.me>,   
   Don Y   wrote:   
   >> Oh dear, another example of ineptness triumphing over technical   
   >> goodness.   
   >   
   >There is a mistaken emphasis on usability and deferred error   
   >checking -- to make "coding" less difficult for the inept.   
   >   
   >Even in languages that have scoping rules that allow you to   
   >be more pedantic in defining identifiers, people choose to   
   >ignore them as an expedient.   
   >   
   >"The larger the dictionary, the FEWER the number of misspellings   
   >the spell-checker will find!"   
   >   
   >Similarly, laziness in deploying invariants lets errors in   
   >*processing* creep into data and persist -- often beyond   
   >the point where they COULD have been noticed!   
   >   
   >("This value can't exist here!  But, once you get PAST this   
   >point, the code will treat it as valid data...")   
   >   
   >The worst misuse (IM) of Excel is in place of a database.   
   >Yet, people seem terrified to NOT be able to see their data   
   >at a glance (really?  can you SPOT an error that would merit   
   >its presentation, thusly?)   
   >   
   >[I have encountered datasets maintained in excel (and other spreadsheets)   
   >that were horrendously large and impossible to manage.  Yet, offering   
   >to restructure the data in a database brings terror to the users...]   
      
   I have worked for the Rotterdam Harbour. There was a guy there that   
   had a huge spreadsheet, keeping track of *all* naval vessels   
   whereabouts.   
      
   I worked with a sql database that contains all loading and unloading   
   used to reconstructed the path of vessels around the harbour.   
   There was a great surprise, vessels unloaded in the middle of a   
   an agrarian area. Later I discover that was a placeholder of   
   docking stations that had disappeared.   
      
   >   
   >> I repeatedly complain to an R user which is an Excel user via   
   >> quotations like so: "languages like PHP and Mathematica are still   
   >> heedless to variable misspellings; [. . .] reversing bad design   
   >> decisions, is often impossible once there is a community of users. The   
   >> shortcomings of Perl, PHP, CSS, JavaScript, etc, are going to persist   
   >> [. . .] JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Excel [. . .] having little type   
   >> safety" says   
   >> Harold Thimbleby, "Heedless programming: ignoring detectable error is   
   >> a widespread hazard", "Software: Practice and Experience"   
   >   
      
   There is a widespread habit of "casing away" warnings. That is in the same   
   category. Most programs can avoid those. The proper way is to log warnings   
   with an explanation of why they are not indicative of a mistake.   
      
      
   Groetjes Albert   
   --   
   The Chinese government is satisfied with its military superiority over USA.   
   The next 5 year plan has as primary goal to advance life expectancy   
   over 80 years, like Western Europe.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)