From: rob@xxxxxxxxx
Can we leave it at this? As a software vendor you're probably going to
get stepped on if you try to enforce a shop standard throughout all your
clients that QTEMP
a - Has to be in the library list.
b - Has to be in a specific part of the library list (like top or bottom)
As vendor distributed code, if you mean QTEMP, then qualify QTEMP (if at
all possible).
We can leave it at this as long as you don't insist on me agreeing that
having QTEMP in the library list is "bad programming". It's not. It's as
valid an approach as any other, and it's a little scary to me when people
start saying that perfectly valid programming techniques are "bad",
especially ones that take advantage of the strengths of the machine.
Your issue about imposing library list standards on shops is a valid one,
Rob, but it's only one scenario. Those who do have control over their
library lists can decide whether or not they want QTEMP in it or not, and
it's a business decision, not an architectural one.
And yes, there's what I suppose could be considered an extra risk of
somebody compromising an application flow by inserting their own program
object into QTEMP and somehow causing mayhem. Consider this, though: if
anybody is able to get their own programs into QTEMP and execute them,
they're way beyond your control anyway - they're either rogue developers
with access to production data or production users with restore
capabilities. Those are big-time security holes and obscuring QTEMP isn't
going to help if your security is that lax in the first place.
On the other hand, in my experience any hardcoding of library names, even
QTEMP, has inevitably bitten me in the butt at some point down the line.
That's just me speaking from decades of commercial application development.
As always, YMMV.
Personally, I see arbitrarily restricting QTEMP from the library list as
just one more step in the Unixization of the platform. I hate the
homogenization of IT and the idea that you write to the lowest common
denominator, and I hate when valid programming techniques are called "bad".
But that begins to skew in the direction of opinion and as we all know, when
it comes to opinions everybody's got one <smile>.
Joe
midrange.com
