Re: Humorous Enhancements. I ain't amused.

[dhandy@xxxxxxxxxxx (Douglas Handy)]

Wynn,

>This has, for some reason, really urked me just now!!! This freakin'
>buzzword, "Legacy", is just about to make me a day trader.
>
>In this specific case, the word is totally out of context...in fact, quite
>amatuerish. Stupid logic has nothing to do with legacy. 

No, stupid logic doesn't.  But in this case, I strongly suspect that
it wasn't stupid logic but the fact that *INxx was not available at
the time it was coded.  

My CD based American Heritage dictionary defines "legacy" as:

leg·a·cy  n., pl. leg·a·cies. 1. Money or property bequeathed to
another by will. 2. Something handed down from an ancestor or a
predecessor or from the past. 

(end quote)

Note definition 2.  Code which was written on the S/36 in RPG II
(where you do not have *INxx) but is later ported to RPG III or RPG IV
to me falls well within definition 2.  I don't believe "predecessor or
from the past" is necessarily limited to human ancestry.  Even
"ancestor" can mean "anything regarded as a precursor or forerunner of
a later thing" according to my dictionary.

>In a more general sense, exactly what kind of code would be considered
>"non-legacy"?

Code that was not ported/migrated/converted/whatever from a
predecessor or prior machine or language version.  In other words, was
written for the current machine/language architecture.  Hopefully,
anyone coding on an AS/400 now (except in the S36EE) would not use
such a technique for new development.  I admit, I'm giving the coder
the benefit of the doubt here when I speculate it was originally
written in RPG II.

>FYI: The word really has nothing to do with computing in terms of how it's
>used. Legacy refers to things of "the past". 

If a program first written for an Autocoder or S/3 or whatever is
still running today on a 400, then it seems to me it is refering "to
things of the past".  And to "something handed down from ... a
predecessor or from the past".

What do you call production applications written years or decades ago
on a different platform or a prior language version?  I thought
"legacy" was the generally-accepted industry term for this.  Even if
it does help you win "buzzword bingo".

>Sorry for the rant...I just had to get it out,

Sorry it irked you, but I fail to see how using "has its roots in
legacy limitations" to refer to RPG II coding techniques was either
amateurish or totally out of context.

Why do you feel it was "quite amateurish"?

Doug
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