Re: Benefits of Sub-procedures

[Hans Boldt <boldt@xxxxxxxxxx>]

jt wrote:

> ...
> | which returns the next
> | available transaction number as a string. Then, the users of the
> | procedure are spared the gory details of the actual implementation.
>
> What advantage does a procedure offer in this case...?
>
> Well, that depends...
>
> I try to design systems where the links between business, UI, program code,
> and database are kept to a minimum (and I believe most good 400 architects
> do also.)  So I like a database that is updated in as minimal number of
> programs/modules as possible...  Ideally, there would be between 1 and 3
> places the transaction number would be incremented and updated, in the first
> place.
> ...

This brings up a point I thought of after posting my rant that I 
should have mentioned: Suppose you wanted to change the way 
transaction numbers were generated. Perhaps you want numbers to be 
persistent? Perhaps you want characters other than digits in your 
transaction numbers? Whatever. Coding the new transaction 
computation within a procedure (or wrapped in a class) allows you to 
more easily change the rules without affecting the calling code, 
making maintenance easier. Yet another advantage of the procedure.

> ...
> I wish you could tutor me in Python some more!

I'll defer that task to others: 
http://www.python.org/doc/current/tut/tut.html

;-)

Cheers! Hans