I appreciate the fact based reply. I spent 3 months reworking a
legacy COBOL
application recently. I had a lot of time to reflect on why the code
I was
working on was so hard to follow and modify. It was out of that
morass of
crap code that I developed my theory of the virtue of parameters and
the
evil of the global variable.
-Steve
Fair enough.
And sorry for jumping rather on the defence myself. I've been battling
my own issues with others - which often revolves around people trying to
use a bulldozer to dig for a china cup (yeah, I stole that from Raiders
of the Lost Ark) - or in other words always using the same approach
(language choice or structure) to resolve very different problems - even
when their choice is obviously not 'fitting' well.
I don't think there ever will be a best or worse language. Each can be
abused, each has it's own strengths and it's own weaknesses. I'm in
support of clear maintainable code in all languages, and I think the
technique of organized code transcends the language (to an extent).
Your main original point is well taken - those languages that limit or
omit variable scoping do indeed add an extra maintenance issue that can
easily be a problem. Variable scoping is a good thing when used
properly, and sub procedures provide that nicely in RPG. The omission of
variable scoping in some languages such as COBOL is a limitation that
needs to be weighed when choosing those tools.
Cheers
Jim
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