RE: RPG - conversion vs re-write

[boothm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

on 09/14/97 at 10:46 AM, "Kahn, David" <KAHN@tengizchevroil.com> said:


Booth, this quite natural anxiety is coming through in a number of your

posts and I think you're worrying unnecessarily. As Dean has often

pointed out ...

I'll admit to the anxiety, but I'll also admit to an overblown sense of
self-esteem; my anxiety stems from what I see everyday.  I work with code
written by others and I can often tell the age of the code by the coding
style and the paradigm that was fashionable then.  I have to know what the
tricks and the shortcuts were.  I've repaired and converted WSU stuff,
I've seen BITON and BITOF, MHHZO and MHLZO, EXIT, NEXT, and POST and 
other arcane usages that surface once in a hound's life.  Through the
years a lot of things have come and a few have gone.  Now we are seeing a
flurry of new words with very new meanings and it worries me that later on
the vestiges of this new paradigm will have us howling at the moon.

I like what I have seen of RPGIV and ILE and it fits well with our needs
for the future.  But when we worry about %Null then we are taking away
from time we need for developing an: - edit code for putting a negative
number in parentheses, or  - a minus sign in front of a negative number,
or a 
- a decent text editor for users(see note below), or a
- PRTATR() command like the DSPATR() command so we can 
  - bold,
  - underline,
  - center,
  - flush-right,
  - italicize, or
  - double-size headings.

I feel we are addressing the whims and cares of the Computer Sciences
department and not the needs of the users.  Frankly, in my mind there is a
very long list of desperately needed basic user's requirements right now. 
%null is way down any list my clients would write.  And this is only my
list.  People like Carr, Massiglio, Barsa, and Paris must hear pleas
everyday for features that make my list look silly.

(note) Why not a text editor for the users?  Why can't we have a decent
"comments" section relating to records?  i.e., if I have an Accounts
Receivable system and want to keep notes relating to dunning overdue
customers then why can't I have a useful editing mechanism?  (If
Officevision is the answer then I've asked the wrong question.)
----------------------------------------------------
Booth Martin   802-476-7942
Contract Programming, Inc.
---------------------------------------------------

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