Re: Convert from free to fixed

[Vern Hamberg <vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

 Hi Scott

Yeah, I did make a bit of a categorical statement, didn't I? It came out 
of hearing statements in what seems to be a very polar environment - 
perhaps colored by one's own situation. We use new stuff, I convert to 
free-form as it makes sense and doesn't take too much time and effort. 
And there is a mix of techniques sometimes - subprocedures and 
subroutines co-exist. I'll replace the *ENTRY PLIST with prototypes, 
again, if it doesn't take too long - I have a tool for doing it from 
Craig Rutledge. It's an as-I-touch-it kind of thing.

And your point is well-taken - and I might think that things are all 
over that spectrum, from the "use nothing old" to "use nothing new" poles.

There may also be a difference between learning to use a callp or eval 
vs learning a whole new technological technique, such as the things you 
offer, like your FTP API, HTTP API, expat, and all the rest. Those don't 
necessarily, seems to me, use ground=breaking code techniques as far as 
opcodes and the like are concerned. They call things in APIs. That's 
another gross generalization, I hope I'm not drawing erroneous 
conclusions. WHAT you do is more important, perhaps, than HOW you do it 
- after a while there is a degree of stasis in the HOW.

OK - back to work - enough thinking!
Vern

On 9/28/2010 10:30 AM, Scott Klement wrote:
> Hi Vern,
>
> > Nothing wrong with it - some think tried and true techniques should
> > never be used, just because they aren't their hottest new thing.
> Frankly, that's not a common problem in the RPG community.
>
> A much more common problem is to use old, clumsy, outdated techniques
> just because folks are used to them.  RPG programmers almost always hang
> on to outdated techniques long after better ones arrive, just because
> "we've always done it that way."