RE: Character to Numeric

Brad wrote:
>Gimme a break, Hans.  That's not was deja is for.  It's like asking a
>ferrari to go four-wheeling in the mud.
>
>Sure it helps to know what usenet is all about when searching, but even if
>you don't you'll find your answers, if they are there.  99% of the time
they
>are, and not just AS/400 stuff either.  I have plenty of examples.  One
>including a problem with a DVD movie that wouldn't show theatrical
trailers.
>I got on deja and within 1 minute I had the answer (actually 20 or more)
of
>why I was getting a "parental lock" message when trying to view theatrical
>trailers.
>
>Let me tell you, typing in a search phrase and clicking "find" is the same
>thing google does.  No different.  And it's real discussions.  Usenet (and
>this list) are more valuable because they are real world stuff.
>
>Google and deja both have their means.  They're both good at what they do.
>
>It the only faults you can find with something are things that it is not
>meant to do, then let's just drop this thread.


Brad:  As usual, I think we're both arguing from different
points of view.  I know from my own personal experience
that the vast majority of human visitors to my own personal
web pages arrive via a web search tool like Google.  You're
right that I shouldn't presume to know how you run your web
pages.  After all, the only people who read your web logs
are you and your ISP.

(I must confess to being a bit of a hypocrite, though.
Although I enjoy seeing how people arrive at my web pages by
reading the HTTP_REFERER data, at home I browse using the
IJB proxy which filters out the HTTP_REFERER from my http
requests!)

Furthermore, the logistics of personal web pages are very
different than commercial pages.  Although my dial-up ISP
offers very generous terms for personal pages, if my pages
get too popular, I may be charged more for the extra traffic.
As a result, I want to make sure the surfer has ways to exit
out into other related information.  On the other hand,
commercial pages often want to generate more traffic within
their own pages, and so often tend to ignore any outside
(potentially competitor) links.

One more point:  Although you prefer searching Usenet and
consider it to be most useful, please don't assume that
others share your opinion too.  Personally, I find Usenet
too much of a zoo.  I know I'm not the only one who regularly
uses web search tools, like Google or FAST.  (My original
argument is that links to other related web pages helps
greatly those who use web search tools, not that one search
technique is better than another.)

That brings up one (hopefully) final point:  Perhaps we
should change the name of RPG.  Entering RPG into any search
tool (web or Usenet) gets you lots of sites, but most have
absolutely nothing to do with the midrange programming
language.

Cheers!  Hans

Hans Boldt, ILE RPG Development, IBM Toronto Lab, boldt@ca.ibm.com


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