A question for any code jockeys

[scaeagles]

If you are looking for something that is permanent, you MUST start with a good base. Quick and dirty is not the way to go, as will will undoubtedly pay for it later.

I speak from the standpoint of having done quick and dirty and had to redo it later or try to work with it when modifications and adaptations are difficult because of what was originally done. It always takes more time in the long run to modify quick and dirty than it does to do it right.

I am in an environment now where speed was the key to the success of the business - getting functionalyity up for users because the few customers the business had were its life blood and it was necessary. However, a deade later after being acquired and converting to new technologies, it has become nearly impossible to adapt older code into working in conjunction with these newer techs and we are literally rewriting almost every piece of code in our system.

Assuming you are not the only one who will ever need to modify the stuff you are doing, take that in to account as you code in terms of documenting in your code. Well worth the time.

ETA: AVOID HARD CODING AT ALL COSTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you need to hard code, develop some form of table that can be accessed so that any necessary changes are data changes rahter than code changes. An example might be a connection string. Rather than hard code in a way that might need to be recoded should server info change, have a system level variable that can be modified in the database.