It certainly feels like it when I read things like this post about upgrade problems because of the "sa" account. I actually saw the original post from MVP Gail Shaw and I was sure that it was some mistake. Can we really still be hard coding things into software in the year 2008? And in a product that was just released this year with all kinds of new engineering efforts?
Apparently so, and if you'd like to make your feedback known on Connect,item 364566 is the place.
Memo to everyone writing software: System default and hard-coded accounts are bad. Don't ever, ever depend on them. Don't expect that there's always a c: drive and don't build code that references things hard coded into the system. Always, and repeat this 7 times, always ask the user for information regarding locations, security, and everything else you can think of.
I remember constantly monitoring C: drives for space since so many Microsoft patches and products were looking for space on that drive. Even when we had various configuration settings for things like temporary space, new products would come out looking for the C: drive.
There's a simple fix for this, and I'm sure that Visual Studio implements it. Do a global search and replace for the 'sa' account in all SQL Server code, and remove it. Don't ever look for any value that the user has control over. I know it's a minor point, but this is just one more reason for those of us out in the field to not want to install an RTM product. It displays a certain level of sloppiness in the code that makes us feel that all those "new" features you added contain a similar level of poorly designed, written, and tested code.
People at Microsoft are always asking how to get people to trust their products and not wait for a Service Pack to upgrade. There are a variety of reasons, but you can start right here. Don't make poor coding mistakes like this one.
Steve Jones
Steve's Pick of the Week
Blog Review - Yours & Mine - I thought this was a very interesting offer from Andy Warren. To be fair I own a business with Andy (and Brian Knight), but I thought that this was a great offer. Too often many people do things in a vacuum without getting someone else to take a critical look at their work. Andy's a thinker and hopefully I don't flood his email box with this note, but if you want someone to give you feedback, give him a ping.
The Voice of the DBA Podcasts
The podcast feeds are now available at sqlservercentral.podshow.com to get better bandwidth and maybe a little more exposure :). Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there.
or now on iTunes!
- Windows Media Podcast - 31MB WMV
- iPod Video Podcast - 24MB MP4
- MP3 Audio Podcast - 4.9MB
Today's podcast features music by Incompetech. Kevin Macleod has some great compositions in all genres of music. Check him out at www.incompetech.com.
I really appreciate and value feedback on the podcasts. Let us know what you like, don't like, or even send in ideas for the show. If you'd like to comment, post something here. The boss will be sure to read it.