RE: Classic Traps -- I need your input!

Scott Klement
Subject: Classic Traps -- I need your input!

Folks, I'm working on an article that's tentatively titled "Classic
Traps and How to Avoid Them". The general idea is to discuss the
classic mistakes that programmers make while programming, and (where
necessary) explain how to avoid that.

This can be simple things like "Don't use 10000.01 to flip dates,
because it's an obscure technique that many people won't understand,
so even though it's really neat, don't use it". But it can also be a
much more broad and sophisticated notion of a "trap".... "Don't get
into the habit of mixing business logic together with display logic.
Although it makes your program much easier to write, and the code is
much easier to follow, over time it results in a system that's very
difficult to maintain when the business wants to change something, it
becomes very slow and difficult to adapt the old system to the new

Or something like that.

Anyway... I would REALLY appreciate your help. What I need to do is
get together a list of the classic traps that programmers fall into.
Please send me a list of the common traps and mistakes. You can just
reply to my e-mail address directly (I don't want to dirty up the
lists too much) The e-mail address at the top of this message will

I just want to get together a good list of classic traps so I can use
them in my article.