RE: Force EOF in a Subfile

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Joe Pluta
Sent: 15 August 2005 16:18
To: 'RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries'
Subject: RE: Force EOF in a Subfile


> From: Steve Raby
> 
> If the user has to wait 40 minutes from
> pushing the button to receive a change of screen then I can see an
> argument, but even a couple of seconds does not matter IMHO.

Try that argument on an end user.  A couple of seconds is just enough
time for someone to lose their train of thought, or just enough time to
piss off a customer on the phone.  A couple of seconds a few hundred
times a day adds up to hours a month lost.  Multiply that by a hundred
users, and saving a couple of hours of programming time could end up
costing a company thousands of dollars a month.


Let me give you another one, I went to work for a company many years ago on the 
S38, Prior to getting the S38 they sent all their data out to a processing 
bureau with a turnaround time of a week or so. When we put in the S38, for 
months I would receive calls that the machine was so slow, because they pressed 
Enter and it was oooohh seconds before the screen showed them the YTD figures, 
because a 500 page report took nearly an hour to turn up on their desk, yet a 
few months earlier they waited days or weeks, so users will always complain 
that things are not quick enough. However that is not to say you should not 
listen to their complaints and act on them accordingly.  

And without wishing to get into a war about this but, please, a couple of 
seconds to piss of a customer on the phone, they could just say "eeerrrrrrr, 
yup here it is now" That took me 4.5 seconds (just timed myself, got some funny 
looks too!) I do not believe that a customer would be put off by a couple of 
seconds. As for costing a company thousands of dollars a month by adding two 
seconds onto a program function, I think more time is wasted going for coffee, 
talking about last nights game, discussing the weather, or just staring out of 
the window, than would ever be wasted by that, not quite as efficient, bit of 
code.  :-)

Steve