>Garrett ---
>
>>>I'm starting to LIKE pessimistic buffering :)
>>
>>Do tell, please: I'm (almost) always looking for better techniques... :-)
>
>Because pessimistic buffering allows me to be really rude to the user and not have to worry about taking all that time to code conflict management on the back-end :)
>
>Seriously, it can resolve some problems. Like ensuring that no two users can edit a record at the same time before wasting the users time with entering changes that may be discarded. It's not unreasonable to block an edit at request time and that's what pessimistic buffering gives you.

However, you have to be aware of users who leave an editing screen open when they leave for vacation, edit/read-only has to be VERY carefully controlled, etc. We have a program where the same record may be shown in 15 different forms in various ways. We went with optimistic buffering because we rarely have editing conflicts, but the users want the option to edit available without and EDIT button.

JMHO
Barbara