Re: DDS Support

Mark,

A while back I was engaged in a thread about the number of lines of code
a programmer could write in a year.  In all fairness the comparison was
an apples to oranges code purpose thing, but I did raise this same
issue.  Tool writing.  If you are primarily engaged in maintenance
instead of new development the tools needed would differ.  But in either
case, the tools make the job easier and quicker.  If you are writing
compilers, sorry, that's a whole bunch harder than applications and
there is very little that can be tooled.  Each piece is a custom job.

As you noticed, "Programs -are- data" is not the normal view of
programs.  That's what made the statement so profound.  I had to chew on
the concept for a few days until it finally hit me.  It radically
changed my career.

What we did was create a pseudo code to RPG translator and our own data
dictionary.  Our primary business has always been new development.  Our
tool added standards and consistency which made all other development
easier and quicker.  We more than recovered the time spent in developing
the tools.

I'm reminded of a story I was told (now I'm not very good at telling
stories) but there was a lumberjack cutting down trees.  He was working
very hard from sun up till sun down.  A person observed him and noticed
that he could ease his work if he sharpened his saw.  He mentioned this
to the lumberjack who retorted: "I don't have time to sharpen my saw, I
have a deadline to meet."

Take the time to sharpen the saw.  You'll meet the deadline and ease the
burden in the process.

"M. Lazarus" wrote:
> 
> BTW, while the quote you mentioned is an interesting view of
> programs, it must be anecdotal, since the common usage of programs
> does not fall into the description of "Programs -are- data."
> 
>  -mark
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