Front page | perl.perl5.porters |
Postings from March 2011
On Sun, 06 Mar 2011 11:48:57 +0100, brian d foy <brian.d.foy@gmail.com> wrote: > In article <op.vrv2xhag1fclwf@xenpad>, Christian Walde > <mithaldu@yahoo.de> wrote: > >> On Sat, 05 Mar 2011 20:28:51 +0100, brian d foy <brian.d.foy@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> > I think you miss the point of best practice. Outside of a started >> > context, you can't say what is best, good, not optimal, or anything >> > else. There is no way to compare anything when you don't know what the >> > task is, and pretending everyone else in the world has the same goals, >> > constraints, or resources as you is dishonest. >> >> This makes me wonder about just what a "best practice" is. So far i took it >> to mean "behavior that is better than other related behaviors in more >> situations". But you seem to say it means "behavior that is better than all >> other related behaviors in all situations". > > Nope, I'm not implying either of those. I'm saying that you can't say > "best practice" unless you specify the context. It's not a game of > which situations dominate. You should think very carefully about what a > best practice actually is before trying to recommend it to anyone else > in any context. > > Basically, the practicality of "best practice" is that people use it as > a way to not think and to appeal to authority to win an argument. The > actual best practice is to figure out the benefits and costs and > consequences over any decision, rank those based on what's important in > the particular situation, and then make a judgement call. Instead, > "best practice" has turned into "do what I say without questioning it". > A real discussion of practices includes both sides-what you get and > what you give up. However, once given an answer, people stop thinking. > > Peter used the word "informed" to describe the people who are telling > people to do it their way without knowing what the rest of the world is > trying to accomplish. That's an anti-best practice. Ah, this is less about the specific situation at hand, but more against the use of the term "best practice" as a thought-terminating cliché. That makes sense. -- With regards, Christian WaldeThread Previous | Thread Next