Re:Programming tools (was DDS Support)

Well Stated and true

Steven Easton
www.5-10.com
easton@5-10.com
____________________Reply Separator____________________
Subject: Programming tools (was DDS Support)
Author: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
Date:  7/3/00 9:01 AM

Mark Lazarus wrote using HTML:

-snip about using a tool to create code/data definitions-

>So you're putting the burden on the tool writers??   
>I don't that's fair either, but as I mentioned above, 
>most shops don't seem have these tools anyway.

Mark -your remark is exactly right and proper in the context of this
discussion, and I quite agree with you - most midrange shops own no
programming tools.  There is a bizarre belief among the majority of midrange
programmers that they require no tools to perform their job.  None.  No PC
based editor, no change management, no data dictionary, no cross
reference/documentation, no embedded SQL, no code generator, no "off the
shelf" service programs (like OCX's or DLL's available for the PC platform.)
This is about the only box where a programmer can be taken seriously when
she tells her boss that "we don't need a (fill in the tool) - that's just
one more thing to have to learn."  On any other box, a programmer who is
unwilling to learn will not be employed long and rightfully so.

Because of this, there is little or no market for programmer tools on the
AS/400.  This reduces our ability to write robust modern complex code
because we CAN'T GET programmer tools!  The definition of "tool" is
"something that allows you to do more work per unit time (code generator),
or to do better work per unit time (change management) or to allow the user
to work longer with less fatigue (PC based editor)."  Why are any of these
things undesirable in the AS/400 world, but de rigeur elsewhere?

No, most AS/400 shops don't seem to have these tools, and that's not a good
thing.

Buck Calabro
Aptis; Albany, NY
"We are what we repeatedly do.
 Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." --Aristotle


Billing Concepts Corp., a NASDAQ Listed Company, Symbol: BILL
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