Re(2): New names

["Mike Naughton" <mnaughton@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com writes:
>and also,  Are VB programs the "I don't want to maintain it"  legacy
>systems of tomorrow?

For many of them, it may even be "later today". I read an opinion
somewhere that most gui programmers, faced with maintaining someone else's
work, will prefer re-writing everything from scratch, since it actually
takes less time than trying to figure out an even moderately complex
application. I imagine there are exceptions, but speaking from personal
experience it is _extremely_ easy to write spaghetti code. Actually, a lot
of it isn't even code -- it's property values here and input formats
there. And the code itself can be attached to any event on any object, so
finding where variables get initialized or changed can be a real PITA. I
don't know much about C++, but I'm not aware of any good ways of getting
an informative listing of a VB application -- certainly, nothing as useful
as an RPG compile listing.

I actually like VB for a lot of things, but I've had to force myself to
develop and adhere to standard structures, just so I can maintain my own
stuff. I'd bet that hiring a bunch of recent grads to whip up something
cheap is a guarantee of many problems down the road (but maybe far enough
down that the manager  in question is no longer in the picture?)

Just my .02

Mike Naughton
Senior Programmer/Analyst
Judd Wire, Inc.
124 Turnpike Road
Turners Falls, MA  01376
413-863-4357 x444
mnaughton@juddwire.com

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