Explicit is better than Implicit

[Skip Montanaro]

>
> When Excel reads a file, it looks for stuff and decides to upgrade its
> type. Eg dates etc (particularly pernicious with US-style dates versus
> the rest of the planet).  Mojibake for data ensues.
>
> As always, I am reminded of Heuer's Razor:
>
>     If it can't be turned off, it's not a feature. - Karl Heuer
>

Good one. I always remember the start-up days (late 90s) when I developed
and maintained an online concert calendar (Musi-Cal) written in Python. The
technology got bought by another start-up (Mojam) who used Perl for their
web stuff. Both front end systems talked to my Python-based back end
(communication between both front ends and the one back end was via
XML-RPC). I was sometimes frustrated by the stuff Perl did. The one which
stuck with me all these years was its silent conversion of the band name "
311 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/311_(band)>" to the integer 311 on which
my Python backend obligingly barfed. I eventually had to put in data type
checks for all fields in my back end (my front end already had that sort of
input validation) as I could no longer assume a sentient front end was
handing it data.

Skip