RE: IBM pushing Java

[Buck Calabro/commsoft<mcalabro@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 03/24/99 04:35:51 AM Colin Williams  wrote:

>What happens when you get to mybean10,000 and the application is poorly
>documented? 

Writing modular code isn't an excuse to ignore the documentation!  You got 
to MyBean10000 because you had 10000 business tasks to perform.  How do you 
know that?  Because your librarian tells you that your new business 
function isn't represented in your library of beans yet.  The librarian 
knows because each bean is simple enough that the documentation clearly 
describes it's behaviour.  Because the documentation is easy to write and 
easy to understand, you'll be able to actually read it and use it when you 
need to use a bean in your application.  What the modular programming model 
did for you was to let you construct a more robust application than the 
monolithic model allows for.

The funny thing is that we're even having a debate over the merits of 
modular programming.  If the computer science graduates are surprised to 
see our monolithic code, the experienced PC programmers we hire to work on 
the client/server GUI stuff are in shock.  They've never seen anything like 
it on any other platform.  We're too insular, too isolated from mainstream 
computing.  What we're really debating here is the question of how soon do 
we in the midrange community want to utilise more modern programming 
concepts in our work. 

Will my shop trash RPG and do everything in Java next week?  Nope.  But if 
I learn Java, I advance my knowledge of the science of computing, making my 
RPG code better in the process.  Knowing that the midrange community is 
traditionally slow to adopt new concepts, it's pretty much up to me to 
advance myself; if I wait for my employer to teach me Java (or most any 
modern computing concept!) I could wait a long time.

Buck Calabro
Billing Concepts Inc (formerly CommSoft), Albany, NY
mailto:mcalabro@commsoft.net
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