Re: rpg400-l-digest V1 #239 -- RPG400-L

Pete,

I agree, "today" noone is writing 150 page programs. One writes 15 10 page 
programs to
do the same thing.

Wait a minute .... I write 15 10 page programs that use service programs and 
all of the
related /COPY interfaces, and if I made them into a single "function" listing 
.... I
get 250 pages! <g>

Even under the OPM model I never wrote a program that listed over 50 pages, but 
with a
gazillion "shop standard" /COPY members it COMPILED into 150 pages of paper.

We are in agreement: it's the maintenance, not the development that burns the 
bucks.
Well, as long a few bucks are spent on the rare commodity of "forethought". <g>

My point was maintain.  The UPDAT command with externally defined files, and 
-no-
output specs makes me burn the clock to hunt down exactly what is being 
UPDAT'd.  And
guess what, I have to study every module to make user -they- aren't doing some 
closet
file changes =:-o Talk about "hidden" functions! Who knows?

IMHO, there is no better place in the world than the keeper of "the law of the 
land".
You can make up what ever you want!

I'm all for modular development and code reuse.  Now sell me on why I should 
write
twice as much code then I have in the past in order to reuse it in all the same 
places
that I already have working. +8-)

Now, remember it's already working, be gentle, but why should I spend another 
500k
changing it?  Shouldn't I spent it on something it doesn't already do?

Regards,
James W. Kilgore
qappdsn@ibm.net

P.S. Sort of sounds like the BIF discussion doesn't it?


Pete wrote:

> James
>
> Obviously no one is creating 150 page programs anymore, and code that
> updates data fields is concentrated in one place? I have needed O-specs
> for the last 6 years, I can't see me adopting them now.
> This begs the question about how to persuade managers that some rewrites
> really are necessary. I've been lucky enough to have a few opportunities
> to do some rejuvenation work - in many places this is seen as a perk !:(
>
> I only wish that a measurement of the maintenance over-head costs of the
> old-code had been accurately gathered to be compared with the new. I
> suspect that managers have sometimes been bitten in the past by a less
> experienced guy's desire to re-write a large function and in the process
> to use every new trick in the book, including large-scale static binding
> and too many procedures. The problem is that it takes several years for
> a coder to establish a value system and a feel for code elegance, and
> unfortunately the vast majority of coders (present company excepted) are
> simply not interested.
>

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