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  • Subject: Re: RPG - conversion vs re-write
  • From: DAsmussen@xxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 14 Sep 1997 23:56:54 -0400 (EDT)

Booth,

In a message dated 97-09-14 14:26:43 EDT, you write:

> 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 know what you mean.  I maintained legacy code for a NUMBER of years, and
never ceased to be amazed at what I DIDN'T know when one of those old
techniques reared its ugly head.  I even had to pull out a S/34 OCL manual
while doing a S/36 conversion because the /36 manual merely stated that "this
command was maintained for S/34 users.  See S/36 command X for current
support".  Fine and dandy if you're wanting to run a /36, USELESS if you're
wanting to convert a command to its current native counterpart.

>  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.

Waiting on them myself.  Frankly, nulls have caused me MORE GRIEF in
cross-platform interfaces than EBCDIC, ASCII, and packed fields combined.

>  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.

Yes, but it still hasn't done much good, has it?

>  (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.)

Primarily because those features of the operating system haven't been "opened
up" to us "normal" folks.  I'd blame it on the continued reliance on the lame
5250 data stream, but OV allows full screen entry where you can actually
backspace to the previous line after typing onto the next.  Why can't
interactive SQL?  IBM has really spent a great deal of time adding features
to DB2/400 that we didn't want, while ignoring those that we did...

IMHO,

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-Mail:  DAsmussen@AOL.COM

"Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity." -- Oprah Winfrey
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