>And yes, much much prefer very specifically names fields - which was a challenge when this app only used free tables that were limited to 10 chars. I took care to then at least name the controls that bound to them longer and to also put a note in the control's comments area to be really specific if it still might not be clear. I inherited an app that had next to no documentation and we basically had to scrap it and start over as it was a spaghetti mess of code with no documentation, either in-line or external. So I vowed to this business owner to always go a bit over the top in documenting so that if I dropped dead (or took a never-to-return vacation to Serbia),

Still feasible. I already made enough brandy to last me ten years at least, and will make more :).

You forgot the traditional "hit by a bus", which is the only accident programmers ever have. When in traffic, just check for buses. No buses, no danger.

> that someone else would at least have a fighting chance of maintaining the code. It also is a great CYA way of working - how many times have I had one of the owners come (there are 12 partners in the business) and say "why the heck are we doing x" - and I say "give me a second" and I look up what the data is and my notes on it and how it is supposed to behave etc.

I had my great moment in 1992. when the city mill and bakery wanted to change the way they bill for the mill part. Two years before that, when I wrote the whole billing (with lots of attention to detail, including the infamous "apply taxes or rebate first" dilemma) they said "no rebate in the mill, never existed, never will" - which I wrote down verbatim, along with the person's name and date. This time he said they want rebate on mill invoices. Couldn't scrape the grin off my face for the next ten minutes.

>I think it was a guy names Alan Swartz who did a session at a VFP conference years ago who pointed out to never use "mystery values".

Also heard them called magical numbers. Any technology which can't be explained looks like magic. Not necessarily unexplainable because it's too advanced, but because it's undocumented and nobody knows how the fuck it works, therefore magic.