Comment by ilitirit
7 years ago
I don't disagree with the obviously true statement, but this code comment comes to mind:
// Dear maintainer:
//
// Once you are done trying to 'optimize' this routine,
// and have realized what a terrible mistake that was,
// please increment the following counter as a warning
// to the next guy:
//
// total_hours_wasted_here = 42
Also, don't forget the hours wasted of the people having to learn another query language. :)
You can test that for yourself. Go through the three language-related sections on my site and decide for yourself how many hours you'd need to "waste" before you would "get it".
And as for "waste" : if while learning a better language, they are in addition also learning the relational model, and to think relationally, (their knowledge of both of which will be VERY poor if all they've ever seen is SQL) then there can't have been much time "wasted", can it ?
Or the XKCD with the 14 competing standards and, "let's make one good standard," and now you have 15 competing standards.