RE: Modernizing code (Was: Soft coding SQL based on parameter file)

What if it's the dev down the hall today, rather than some unknown dev in some potential future?

-----Original Message-----
From: DrFranken [mailto:midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2017 1:39 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Modernizing code (Was: Soft coding SQL based on parameter file)

This continues to bother me and finally it hit me why it does. We frequently refer to 'someone else who might maintain it.' This IS appropriate, really! Good standards, comments, structure etc are all good for that guy! But FAR too many in the IBM i space assume that person is old and grey. They assume that the only people who will see the code only know 'C' in column 6 and left hand indicators.

BUT WHAT IF THEY ARE WRONG!? What if the next guy is 21 and wouldn't know a left hand indicator if it had an arrow pointing to it! When THESE people see that OLD code they won't be able to maintain it! THESE people are the future of your company's I.T. When THESE people see that code they WILL dump IBM i because of what it has been left to be, not because of what it could have been, or could (should?) be today.

Those insisting on the old standards need to realize the next guy is increasingly more likely to be YOUNG and CAPABLE not Old and Decrepit!
Failure to do so cements the demise of IBM i in their company.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.Frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com - Personal Development IBM i timeshare service.
www.iInTheCloud.com - Commercial IBM i Cloud Hosting.