I really agree with the "Avoid special cases", or the Zen of Python version: "Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules."
For large systems it's absolutely critical to be careful around special case, at best avoid them. The hard part of dealing with special cases is to explain to business people that their "It's just ONE special case, how bad can it be" will snowball if allowed.
For large systems it's absolutely critical to be careful around special case, at best avoid them. The hard part of dealing with special cases is to explain to business people that their "It's just ONE special case, how bad can it be" will snowball if allowed.