Assumtion is the mother of all fuckups

[Lost User]

Rick York wrote:

had a customer say to me once, "I won't know what I want until I see it."

Handled properly these are way better than clients that give you a whole mess of specs... specs: often in a small co: written by a boss who doesn't really know what the underlings need nor appreciate how it's done now and even less how it could be done better. often in a large co: written by a bunch of idio "consultants" who get led around by a boss and never really ask the users as all they do is listen to the boss who . For mine, the less specs the better, talk to the users, don't ask them "what they do," but rather "what do they need to get done and what's the best way to get it done (with respect to, if any SOP)" End result is a combination of application and business improvement, the staff will be happy, the boss will be happier as he gets happy staff and improved productivity. Put simply: Show me someone that asks for specs and I'll show you a junior programmer.

[RickZeeland]

The problem with those large companies is that nobody takes responsibility and just points to someone else exclaiming "He's the responsible guy !", in Dutch we name this sort of thing "Zwarte Pieten" :-\

[ZerqTheMad]

assume makes a ass out u and me

[KBZX5000]

Ha! I'm in the same boat. I need to scrap an "obsolete" database-listener service. And they also want to retain all the functionality, like performing manual edits in the database should still trigger various workloads. *sigh*

[Nathan Minier]

Jörgen Andersson wrote:

Yes, it has two columns (YearID, Year)

That'd be hysterical if it wasn't so tragic.

"Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity." - Hanlon's Razor

[Lost User]

More to the point, why do we insist on using f*** to represent what we all know it actually means? Same as c***; 99% of English speaking readers, I’d wager, know exactly what word this represents. What’s wrong with using cock up if we want to supposedly sanitise the written word? Asking for a friend! 😂

[Gary Wheeler]

Jörgen Andersson wrote:

teach him the virtues of normalization using a bundle of nettles

That's so environmentally unfriendly of you. A few strokes, the nettles wear out, and you have to harvest more. I prefer a bundle of rusted barbed-wire scraps. They last forever, and the extra weight adds emphasis to the stroke.

Software Zen: delete this;

[Lost User]

Damn! Even the shortened version of a male hen is obscured. I’m living in a world of censorship

[Jorgen Andersson]

How about the long version, cockerel?

Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

[Lost User]

Sounds much better; the mother of all cockerel ups! 😂

[Jorgen Andersson]

To answer your question, it's all about keeping the site white-listed in various filters employed by companies.

Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

[Jim_Snyder]

...working with one of them right now...

[Rick York]

You have my condolences.

[Jim_Snyder]

Thank you!

[Jorgen Andersson]

But did you ever use an identity for a year table?

Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

[kmoorevs]

Jörgen Andersson wrote:

But did you ever use an identity for a year table?

Yes, but only to define fiscal/business years. The situation described where the only other column is an int (assuming :laugh: ) containing the year is ridiculous. :)

"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse

[Jorgen Andersson]

You're gonna love this. It's a lookup table for fiscal years! :laugh:

Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

[kmoorevs]

Jörgen Andersson wrote:

It's a lookup table for fiscal years

In a previous response, you mentioned that the year table only has two columns. Am I to assume that a fiscal year is the same as a calendar year in your situation? Mine are not...customers either start their year June 1 or September 1.

"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse

[Jorgen Andersson]

No it isn't. It's from september to August. Mind, I never claimed the database is well designed. Everything, and I really mean everything except one table, is done using surrogate keys. Including many that doesn't need it. Just one table is done using a natural key, that isn't. Surrogate keys are a safe bet though. They're never plain wrong even if they're not necessarily the best choice. But it can get ridiculous.

Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello