Re: RDi vs SEU

Don't get me wrong. I'm confident that RDi is a definite productivity
enhancer for some developers. I'm just not one of them (or at least, not to
the point that a switch will have a significant impact). But I may also not
fit the definition of a typical application developer (which I assume is
the target audience).

On Sun, Apr 5, 2015 at 7:59 AM, Paul Raulerson <paul.raulerson@xxxxxxx>
wrote:

Yowsa! Guys, any contribution I had to this little flare up, I apologize
for.

I do think that some of us are overemphasizing RDI, and more, that RDI at
least appears to be an unreasonable financial cost for many small shops. Or
rather, has been. And I also tend to agree it is not as much of a
productivity enhancer as some here think. Don’t forget how disruptive it
can be to learn, and what happens when you hit a shop that doesn’t have it
or won’t allow it?

All the same, I often use it. :)

-Paul

On Apr 5, 2015, at 2:35 AM, Scott Klement <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

wrote:

Sorry about the "liar" thing, I was in a REALLY bad mood.

As you know (but many of the readers of this list may not) I have not

been doing well lately. I had severe damage to my spinal cord in 2013,
leaving me a "paraplegic" (spinal cord damage that prevents proper use of
my body from the waist down.) I worked extremely hard in physical therapy
for two full years, many hours each day, and overcame a lot of what I lost.
I was able to be independent, take care of myself without a nurse, able to
walk with a cane... and was even reaching the point where it was looking
like I could eliminate the cane (I could walk for about 20 minutes without
needing it until I got tired...)

Then this autumn, things stopped improving, and started degrading. I can

no longer walk safely with a cane. I can no longer do physical therapy
exercises that were easy for me even as far back as two years ago. For the
past four months I've been having tests done with the doctors, and they
have found nothing wrong. I wrote that message immediately after a call
with my neurologist where he told me that he could do nothing for me, and
that the last test he had for me had shown nothing. Probably was a bad
idea to reply at that time. Forgive my brashness.

I do not think you are a liar. But, at the same time, I find it

unbelievable that you could possibly have improved your productivity by 20%
or more.

RDi has lots of features that save me a little bit of time here and

there:

-- Ctrl-Space helps give me a quick reminder of the syntax, especially

of BIFs where I can't always remember the exact sequence of the parameters.

-- The Outline makes it easier to understand large monolithic programs.

Though, I must admit, this was a much bigger help at my previous job than
it is at Profound Logic, since our code at Profound is very modern, and I
do not often need help interpreting it or finding where variables are used.

-- When copying/pasting code to PC applications (such as sharing

examples in these mailing lists and the other forums, as well as writing
articles and presentations) RDi's features help me a LOT. This is probably
the single biggest time-saver I get from RDi, because I do this sort of
thing so frequently. (But, I don't think most RPGers do.)

-- The ability to see compile errors right in the window when compiling

a program is a help if there are a lot of compile errors. (Usually, for
me, this is when I'm writing a new program. When making modifications to
an existing program, the number of compile errors are relatively small, and
this doesn't save much.)

-- I like the fact that RDi works well with C/C++ and JavaScript

programs in addition to RPG, as I code in these languages just as a often
as RPG.

But, on the other hand --

-- I can't stand the "Remote Systems" view or it's filters. I find this

extremely clumsy and slow vs. a command-line interface. (I also don't like
PDM, though.)

-- I much prefer the FNDSTRPDM command (or 'grep' in the IFS) to the

search features in RDi.

-- When I need to make a few small changes to lots of source

files/members (For example, updating the year of the copyright statement in
100+ members) I find SEU infinitely faster/easier.

-- I don't like RDi's debugger, and still typically use the green-screen

STRDBG one.

-- For short simple tasks like creating binder source or most CL

programs, I find it much quicker/easier to use SEU.

-- Free tools like Notepad++, vim (in PASE) or gvim (in Windows using a

mapped drive) are usually just as good (sometimes better) at JavaScript,
HTML or CSS code.

So there are pros and cons. For some things RDi does indeed save me

time, but for other things other tools work better. I use the tool that I
think will make my job easiest. Sometimes that's RDi, sometimes it isn't.
I doubt very much that RDi gives me 5% boost in productivity. 5% would
equate to roughly 2 hours per week -- and I doubt that very much. maybe
45-60 minutes per week? I could see that. If I used RDi exclusively
because some nutjob decided to "turn off" the other tools, then it would
hurt my productivity without a doubt.

When you say 20% I'm very skeptical. Does that mean you only need to

work 4 days each week instead of 5, because you have saved 20% of your
time?!

I mean, RDi saves me a few minutes here and there.. but HOURS? DAYS?

Really??!

On 4/3/2015 3:57 PM, Jon Paris wrote:

Not often I disagree with you Scott - but I’m going to on this one.

If you are really at best only 5% better with RDi than SEU then all I

can say is you’re a bloody site better typist than I am.

All of the shortcut and filtering options, not to mention outline view,

and only 5%? Sorry - I cannot understand that.

And I don’t take kindly to being called I liar. I made an honest

statement of my personal belief based on my daily experiences.

Jon Paris

www.partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com

On Apr 3, 2015, at 3:09 PM, Scott Klement <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

wrote:

I'm definitely NOT 5% more productive on the whole. There might be

certain circumstances where it makes me 5% more productive... but there
are also circumstances where I'm more productive with SEU.

I find it very, very hard to believe that anyone is 5% more productive

with RDi on the whole.

And any circumstance where someone says something like 20% or

higher... they are lying to you to try to sell something, because that's
just totally absurd.

On 4/3/2015 10:45 AM, Jon Paris wrote:

Is there anyone on this list who would not claim that they are as a
minimum 5% more productive with RDi once past the initial hump?

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