RE: worst RPG ever seen? -- RPG400-L

We didn't let up much on dad when he worked at Kenner.

Matt 

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On 
Behalf Of Mark Allen
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 3:44 PM
To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: worst RPG ever seen?

If they qre anything like mine when I worked at Mattel they are
expecting.....LOTS!!!!!!

On 2/28/06, Holden Tommy <Tommy.Holden@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Geez & you work at  TOYS 'Я' US International???  Kids expect toys a
> lot???
>
>
> Thanks,
> Tommy Holden
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
> On Behalf Of Weber, Richard
> Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 2:20 PM
> To: 'RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries'
> Subject: RE: worst RPG ever seen?
>
> I'm married and have kids!  Sanity?  What's that? ;-)
>
> Rick Weber  |  TOYS 'Я' US International
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: rick baird [mailto:rick.baird@xxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 3:10 PM
> To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
> Subject: Re: worst RPG ever seen?
>
> Yes, but which is more important?  job security or sanity?
>
> On 2/28/06, Weber, Richard <Weberr@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > ...And you've got job security!  See, it worked!
> >
> > Rick Weber  |  TOYS 'Я' US International
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: rick baird [mailto:rick.baird@xxxxxxxxx]
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 2:36 PM
> > To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
> > Subject: Re: worst RPG ever seen?
> >
> > I recently had the distinct displeasure of working on a program that
> > was written by a guy I worked with about 16 years ago.  luckily, I
> > never had to directly work with the guy on a project back then, as his
> > reputation preceded him and I refused.
> >
> > He moved on and sub-contracted at the company I'm working for now.
> >
> > This program was a bloody mess.
> >
> > 22K lines of code.  It was an order detail mass maintenance - allowing
> > change of multiple lines on multiple orders, based on selection
> > criteria.  It updated the order relationships between about 20
> > different files.
> >
> > Their were 8 screens, all of them nearly exactly identical except for
> > one or two fields out of a hundred or so on each screen - but the
> > fields were all named differently.  The subroutines to process these
> > screens were likewise nearly identical, except for about 1% of the
> > lines of code, and of course the different field names.
> >
> > each screen had about 20 subroutines that were used to process them,
> > and they were named sequentially:  SUB1#A, SUB1#B, SUB1#C....  SUB2#A,
> > SUB2#B, SUB2#C.... ect.
> >
> > he didn't use indicators, but what he did was worse - he used
> > attribute byte fields that he also named sequentially - fa1#01,
> > fa2#01, fa3#03... etc.
> >
> > That was not the worst of it.    for each of the 8 screens, he had 6
> > different data structures with hard coded beginning and ending
> > positions, so that he could pass the data back and forth between the
> > data structures easily - a nice technique if done right, this wasn't.
> >
> > typically, a single "setoff" and 3 or 4 "verify" subroutine would be
> > called at least 10 times for each <enter> pressed.   Sometimes the
> > verify subroutines would work with the screen fields, sometimes they'd
> > work with the datastructure fields.  sometimes both at once, sometimes
> > several different DSs at once.
> >
> > to make matters worse, it always dropped clear out of a subroutine and
> > reentered another subroutine based on the value of a variable that he
> > would increment like so:
> >
> > sub#   caseq 1      sub1#A
> > sub#   caseq 2      sub1#B
> > sub#   caseq 3      sub1#C
> > sub#   caseq 4      sub1#D
> > ...
> > ...
> > begsr
> > ...
> > add   6   sub#
> > endsr
> >
> > For days, I would step through this thing in debug mode, never really
> > knowing where I was, and for what purpose.  In 23 years, I've never
> > been as frustrated from working on a program than I was this time.   I
> > was very close to giving up - actually stating to the customer that,
> > no, I refuse to work with this thing any longer.
> >
> > after about 3 weeks of screwing around with this abomination, I
> > suddenly had an epiphany about the rhyme and reason for a couple of
> > the more damnable parts of his code, and was able to make the
> > necessary changes and get rid of it.
> >
> > Several people have told me that this guy admitted to purposefully
> > making his programs as difficult to read as possible, even throwing in
> > every trick he could think of to obfuscate the actual intentions of
> > the code.
> >
> > The reason?  Job security.   yes.  Those people do exist.
> >
> > I wished I had actually worked with this dud back in the day, because
> > I would have surely strangled him.  If a programmer was on the jury,
> > I'd be aquitted - if not, no jury in the land would have given me
> > worse than manslaughter, and by now I would have been out of jail, and
> > would never have seen this program.
> >
> > Now, i'm the order detail mass maintenance expert here, so if they
> > need more changes, I'll be the guy.   I can't wait.
> >
> > Rick
> >
> > --
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