Re: Decimal Place in Character String

On Fri, Mar 6, 2020 at 1:06 PM Roger Harman <roger.harman@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I think the "select" will be much more obvious to anyone who comes along down the road.

I think that is why Dave ultimately preferred it. I don't disagree
about its obviousness.

I was introduced to the acronym "BFCT" (Brute Force Coding Technique) by an IBM'er working on (at that time) CPF at COMMON 30+ years ago and it has come in handy over the years. Usually much clearer and more maintainable than tricky/complex solutions to a simple problem. Code it and move on.

I like clarity and maintainability. I think everyone does. But I am
not so sanguine about "code it and move on". When I hear that phrase,
it implies "don't think, just do". And it feels a bit off to me
because, as programmers or engineers, it's our job to think. Sure,
there comes a point when a "better" solution isn't worth the time (or
other resources) it would require. But equally, I don't believe the
best way to go is to think as little as possible and code as quickly
as possible. If we spend just a bit more time and are a bit more
thoughtful, we can often come up with a much more flexible solution
that is still *reasonably* obvious, and by virtue of its flexibility,
doesn't need nearly as much maintenance.

I have seen my share of "code it and move on" solutions that basically
*required* continual maintenance, *because* they were so simple.

John Y.