x

So you would think the process of checking if someones username and password were valid while logging into a web site would be a simple one... after all... all you need to do is look up that username in the database and see if the password matches...

Enter object oriented programming in .net and 500 lines of code latter, one stored procedure, one sql server, several user defined classes, and xml file here and there and what do you get... a Boolean response of true when user test logs in with password asdf.

While I love object oriented programming sometimes I miss the good old days of scripting when

If request(username) = username and request(password) = password then
Return true
End if

Was all you needed... now my code looks more like this

cmdSql.Parameters.Add(New SqlParameter("@RETURN_VALUE", SqlDbType.Int, 4, "UserID"))
cmdSql.Parameters("@RETURN_VALUE").Direction = ParameterDirection.ReturnValue

only there are 500 lines like that... ahhh ...