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[Talking about code generators/CASE tools] >The cost of these proprietary languages is >relatively high. The performance of the >executables is relatively poor. Programmer >productivity is about the same. It's been an interesting thread. I wonder about the omission of code quality. Certainly, the average Synon program doesn't have as many careless mistakes as the average hand-coded program. Robust applications are better than fragile ones I think. Our Synon code rarely (never?) throws invalid array index errors or divide by zero or any of a host of unpleasant things that the creative hand-coder somehow never manages to clean up, being more concerned with the relative merits of MOVE vs. Z-ADD than with solving a customer's business problem with a robust, quality application. Do I think that it is impossible for hand-coders to do a good job? Not at all! I _do_ think it is more rare than we believe, and that CASE tools raise the overall quality level of the application suite. In this day and age, we don't write a 3 program application anymore. Requirements are more complex, resulting in more complex solutions. From my limited experience, far too many "creative" programmers are loose cannons in the complex modern environment. It's simply not possible to "know" all of the source code in a modern application, but how often have we heard somebody complain that they can't follow the code because of those darned "/COPY" statements or subroutines or subprocedures. CASE tools ARE efficient because they let an average programmer produce above average quality in her application. "Creativity is like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." -- E.L. Doctorow --buck
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