RE: Adoption of new RPG techniques

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Mike Haston ** Data
> 
> Well then the phrase has been over used.  I've been called a 'code
cowboy'
> at times for not continuing the mess of naming variables "@@@CN1" and
> making it something readable like "customerNbr".  Or not continuing
the
> insanity of creating 105 data structures to work with strings and
using
> that 'cutting edge' %SUBST built-in function.  I think I've probably
> worked with the extreme then because I'm such a rebel to take a
subroutine
> that is in 85 programs and turn it into a service program.  How dare I
> because programmer J. Doe wrote that subroutine back in 1994 and it's
> working just fine ... in all 85 programs!

No this makes you if anything an "anti-cowboy", because you are in fact
reducing the maintenance effort (I mean, I'm assuming you're doing the
normal right things like comments and decent naming conventions and all
the rest, but listening to your posts over the years, I think I'm pretty
safe in assuming that your coding techniques are conscientious).

The cowboy is the guy who slaps together a 10-line statement in /free
that invokes three procedures with side effects and then doesn't add a
single word of comments.  This same person can do the same thing with
SQL, creating a 20-line JOIN with two subselects that nobody could
untangle.  Or they use a neat new API they discovered, even though it's
not really needed, and they don't bother to document it.  You find 'em
in C, and in Java, and in HTML, too.  It's got nothing to do with the
language, it's all about attitude.


> Comments and thoughtful spacing can do wonders towards making the
complex
> understandable.  And now with being able to indent the /free code.
> Maintenance is a breeze!  <vbg>

That's one of the things I like about /free, Mike!  Although I still
haven't found the "shift block right" key - that's crucial in indented
languages when you copy a block from one place to another and you need
to indent it two more spaces.

Joe