Computer programmers are, generally speaking, a breed of problem solvers. The really good ones not only try to solve the problem but try to find elegant solutions. That's part of what we enjoy about our jobs, the ability to see a problem and find a solution, which is what 90% of programming boils down to.

Sometimes, however, we can be blinded by the COOL factor, as in, "This is such a cool way to do something, we have to use it."

A good programmer recognizes that good ideas have proper applications. If you've seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, you probably remember the scene where the Nazi enters with a diabolical looking device that turns out to be a collapsible hanger for his coat (and if you haven't seen Raiders, go watch it now, this blog entry will still be here when you get back). Spielberg actually came up with that idea for 1941 but it didn't work as well, so it got cut.

Sometimes our elegant solutions are like that. They work, but they don't work here. And many times we'll file them away until we actually have a need for them. But sometimes....

Sometimes we make that solution our key solution. It is so cool we will use it. Governments are good at that. So are large organizations. Microsoft sometimes is accused of that. Not necessarily with products but with parts of them. I was reminded of that when people were talking about SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition's Resource Governor. It makes SQL Mag's Top 20 list of items only available in SLQ 2008. But for most customers it's not really important. First, you have to actually be able to afford EE. Second, you need to have a narrow problem that RG can solve. And third, you need to implement it.

I highly suspect that many of the people who use RG are going to have poorly performing queries that suck up lots of CPU and thus will use the heavy hammer of the Resource Governor to throttle those queries when a decent redesign is required.

But that could just be me.