The Original Poster (OP) fails to explain:
- why they want to do this,
- what their environment is (OS, #records, performance needed, etc.),
- what they have tried as an alternative,
- the bigger picture of how they got themselves painted into this
corner, and what (ultimately) they *REALLY* need, which is not X to do Y but starting at A and end up at Y.
Ted,
I absolutely agree with about 90% of what you're saying. It's a real problem for me as well, trying to get people to nail down enough specifics about whatever problem they're reporting to enable me to reproduce it and fix it.
I also deeply appreciate all the help you've given me over the years.
My 10% is: I really, really dislike it when people tell me, as a consumer of computer-related stuff, that "You don't really want to do that. What you really need is...."
No, I know what I really want and really need. I'm the guy with the money, and I'm the guy who makes the decisions.
The fact that some computer geek decided, in their vast wisdom, that something that used to work just fine should no longer be available to me, or that something that used to be simple and self-contained should now be complex and require more steps, or that some feature that I relied on but they don't understand isn't "important" enough to retain, because they are trying to "protect" me or whatever else, doesn't impress me at all.
So there's my own rant, back atcha. :)
Ken Dibble www.stic-cil.org