I agree with your point in general but footpad below makes some good ones too: There is a difference between a coding style making sense to one person and it making sense to a group of people who have, in essence, to peer-review the code when it needs updating.

Bob, for example, is dead wrong unless there is an extremely compelling reason for using them: Some data structures just lend themselves to certain ways of doing things. Pseudohashes are, as you say, experimental and from what many have said to me, not the greatest tool in the world. In business situations it pays to code defensively.

Ultimately, though, settling issues like that should be (IMHO!) by coder fiat: If your manager is a coder (mine was) and there is a dispute, they rule on it. Otherwise the most senior/competent coder (alpha geek ;-) rules on the issue, which, I guess ultimately leads to a coding standard, sigh.

I certainly agree that life is different for small and large businesses: Where I worked (and will hopefully be working again this summer) is going through the transition phase.

Cheers, Elgon