Re: IBM pushing Java

[nina jones <ddi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I have a question along these lines:  I refer to much of the old code that I 
>see as being brittle.  I don't know exactly why I started using that term but 
>it does seem appropriate.  Touch something, and something breaks somewhere 
>else.  change a line of code and suddenly some whole section starts behaving 
>differently.

never heard that term, but it fits.  i heard an analogy once that changing a 
program is like throwing a ball into a room with 1000 mouse traps.

but the old internal file, indicator heavy programs are more likely to cause 
problems.  or crappy code written in any style, especially with no comments!

i heard once that ibm's 36 display write was written by rookies, and was so 
bad, it was virtually unfixable.  or what if you buy a package, with code 
written by a case tool?

> Have others noticed this?  Does this word make sense to others, or am I 
>speaking badly?  It is important to me because I feel we must constantly fight 
>against this brittleness or suddenly we have applications that are no longer 
>useful or repairable.  Its usually at this point that I hear the "We need some 
>PCs to do this" speech.

some people will say that no matter what.  they want a p/c and if you jumped 
off the roof to please them, you'd just hurt yourself!

nj
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