Re: /FREE RPG compiler errors

Comments in line.

Gary Guthrie



Joe Pluta wrote:
> 
> Everybody's got their opinion, and mine is almost entirely based on my
> personal feeling that the most important asset in most shops is NOT the new
> code they are writing, but the old code that works.
> 
> Now, you may choose to disagree with me on this.  That's fine.  Don't expect
> me to argue with you on this point.  My background working as long as I have
> at software shops has proven this fact to me: of the code that makes most
> midrange shops work today, by far the majority was written a LONG time ago.


Joe, there's a lot of truth to these comments. I'd have to say that both
the old and the new code are just as important to the business. There is
likely a marked difference in the business function provided by new code
and that provided by old code, but both contribute significantly to the
success of the business.


> And that does NOT make it bad.  In fact, it has a crucial advantage over
> newly written code: it is tested and it works.


The argument isn't that old code is bad. It's that newer techiques
represent an improvement over older techniques. The issue of
tried-and-true (tesed) code, however, is irrelevant with respect to the
understandability of code in maintenance mode (which is where most
effort is). 

 
> making a client rewrite a system that has worked for
> ten years just to keep current - well, that's about as anti-productive as I
> can think.


This hasn't been part of the argument at all.

 
> Anyway, like I said, the whole /free thing has been beaten to death.  I just
> didn't like the implication that not jumping on the /free bandwagon makes me
> or any of my clients lazy or lacking in ambition.


There was no implication that you or any of your clients were lazy or
lacking in ambition because you didn't jump on the free-format
bandwagon. If you or anybody chooses not to use free-format RPG, so be
it. I think that's a mistake, but that's your call. Rather, the message
was that the arguments for avoiding free-format RPG were nonsensical and
typically the product of characteristics such as misinformation,
laziness, and such.


Gary Guthrie