RE: Free Form RPG Opinions Wanted -- RPG400-L

> From: James Rich
>
> If you are an RPG II shop, then what the heck are you doing using free
> format?!?!?!?  Don't use it - you will lose your competitive edge.

Your sarcasm is noted.  The point is it's an RPG II *STYLE* shop, meaning
they have decades old code that is working just fine.  That's a lot of my
clients, especially in the rust belt of the South Chicago suburbs.  They
still want to take advantage of new things; just not at the cost of having
to rewrite a mission critical application.


> Your example client doesn't want the new features because of all the time
> and money that would be spent learning them and testing them.

It's not an expense if they're incremental additions.  I'm talking about
creating a relatively painless path from old code to new, that doesn't
REQUIRE a complete rewrite at any stage of the transition.  Please, please
take the time to listen to what I type.


> It matters what he thinks of it just as it matters what you think of it.

We're not talking opinion, James, we're talking legacy investment.  Do you
understand that crucial difference?


> Maybe I'm high on the fumes, but why should someone waste their time on a
> compile listing which is seperate from the code if the the code itself can
> make clear what is happening?

Only you know your intoxicant level <smile>, but compiler listings were
written for a reason.  Use them, like any other tool.


> Right - assembly for me!  Heck, manly programmers write out the 1's and
> 0's themselves!

Have we devolved to this?  You really don't understand the difference
between writing applications and plugging together pre-written modules?


> (replying to a rather personal put down in another message):
> It doesn't matter how many billions of lines of RPG a person has or hasn't
> written.  Someone with very little RPG experience may have just the right
> insight to improve the language.  So may someone with millions of RPG
> lines under their belt.  But millions of lines do not make someone right,
> nor does less experience automatically make someone wrong.  Every
> achievement is done by someone who has never done that thing before.

What statement was personal, James?  I'm talking facts here, about legacy
investment.  The only statement that was even slightly personal (towards
Jon) was clearly delineated as such, and prefaced with the fact that I have
nothing but admiration for Jon's wisdom, experience, and contribution to the
community.

The statement you seemed to object to was "Jon, I've been involved in the
development of hundreds of millions of lines of code - you know that - over
decades, and never, ever has one of my projects been bitten by a MOVE.  The
one we has last month with the negative sign was truly the first time a MOVE
opcode ever was "too sneaky" for me.  Honestly.  But then again, I have a
policy of beating programmers who write "cute code" with a stick."

You consider this personal?!  If so, I'm sorry I offended, but I haven't the
slightest idea how.

Joe