Re[2]: IBM pushing Java

[eric.delong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

     Sure, I see it all the time. It's a naturally occuring degradation 
     of a system's design caused by years of application "Enhancement" 
     and "Maintenance". Some of the major contributors to this 
     de-evolution are:
     
     1) Source replication -- Somone wants a report just like xxx except 
     for yyy. I often see program source that is nearly identical (one 
     or two lines changed in the whole program). Later, when making 
     changes to one program, you must remember to make changes in the 
     replicated version as well.
     
     2) Too many cooks -- Contractors, consultants, staff programmers. 
     It's a revolving door and EVERYONE takes a turn at modifying a 
     system. Lets face it, most programmers have deficiencies, some are 
     just plain BAD, and the more folks fiddling with it, the more 
     chance of having problems.
     
     3) No shop coding standards -- Without a guide as to what's 
     acceptable or not, one might be tempted to "learn" techniques at 
     the expense of the application's design.
     
     I could go on and on, but it's just a sad fact of life that old 
     code suffers from aging problems.......
     
     eric.delong@pmsi-services.com


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: IBM pushing Java 
Author:  <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com > at INET_WACO
Date:    3/20/99 12:06 PM


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. 

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.


In <199903200957_MC2-6EB2-7239@compuserve.com>, on 03/20/99 
   at 09:56 AM, John Carr <74711.77@compuserve.com> said:


>BTW,  With that management attitude,  How come you still aren't useing 
>RPGII ?    And I bet they are the same Management who complain about 
>their applications are getting older.

>John Carr
>EdgeTech

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------
boothm@ibm.net
Booth Martin
-----------------------------------------------------------

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