Two steps back

I loath retracing my steps. Whenever I walk anywhere I always make a point of travelling in circular route in order that I don't have to follow the same path in both directions. There are worse quirks to be possessed of.

Unfortunately I discovered a snafu with a project I've been developing at work. Ages ago I developed a cute system of dialogues which all our tools use. This was back in the day when all our web applications were developed specifically for Internet Explorer, and so I didn't think twice about using features found only on IE. Ah, I was young and naive back then. I've learned better since, and I've been gradually making amends by modifying the code for wider compatibility as I've been dealing with it (using a rather clever simulacra of IE's showModalDialog function on mozilla - I know, I know you don't care, but trust me, it's clever). I thought all was well, but earlier today I found a serious flaw with it. It's in a scenario that doesn't crop up often, which is why I didn't realise the problem until now, but it's happens just often enough to render my solution less than useful.

It's not the end of the world, and the alternative is relatively straightforward. The problem is that it's clumsy compared to what I'd come up with. And inelegant. And it's also what I moved us away from all those years ago, embarrassingly enough (though no-one's left who remembers this save myself). But on the other hand, it does have the advantage that it works. I'll start implementing tomorrow. But not before I can see if there's any possible alternative, however warped and twisted.

I really dislike retracing my steps.