Re: INTEGER & VARCHAR() on I-specs

" I'm wicked comfortable ...” - but that is the problem Buck. Maintainability should not rely on the skills of one person.

I stopped using the cycle when a) I found that I was fighting it more than it was helping and b) When it took 5 - 10 times longer to educate new programmers in how to modify complex cycle programs than if it had been written using “normal” techniques.

Cycle is fine for genuine one-offs but beyond that I stay well clear.

Can’t help but wonder if the OPs original program couldn’t have been rewritten in less time than it took to research and fix the VarChar problem.

On Jan 15, 2016, at 1:08 PM, Buck Calabro <kc2hiz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 1/15/2016 11:53 AM, Jon Paris wrote:

“… since I need the I-spec indicators.” - <Shudder><Sigh><Sob>

I've been doing this almost as long as you have, and I'm wicked
comfortable not only with indicators on input specs, the full cycle, and
also matching record. The time and effort it takes me to maintain the
tiny tweaks to this code is tiny compared to the mammoth effort to
rewrite it all from scratch and hope I got everything.

The honest truth is that this beast perfectly fits the existing business
process. The actual problem is that the business process is based on
daily transaction files from outside parties - files which need to be
matched to our master files.

If I could convince those outside parties to modernise, I could
modernise too. But right now, Frankenprogram is the best fit to the
business process that's in daily operation.

--
--buck

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