Re: RPG Refactoring - removing GOTO - tips & techniques?

[Booth Martin <booth@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've hesitated to join this thread.  One point I have not seen 
expressed, and may well be pushing the edges of the scope of the topic 
is this:

Programs with Goto's tend to be programs designed for business as it was 
in the 1980s and earlier.  Business rules change, worker base kills 
change, and solutions change.  It is my experience that these old 
programs worry about 5-digit zip codes, fax numbers, y2k concerns, and 
users who don't know how to use a mouse or a scroll bar.  Many of these 
1000-line programs, with today's %bifs and SQL, etc, are easily reduced 
to 125-line & less.

My point is that cobbling together all that old code with new words 
takes longer than cracking the old program open and exposing it the 21st 
century. Lets take off the corsets, wigs, lace collars, and high-button 
shoes.

The concern I often here is "We don't want to overlook a business 
rule."  That concern was erased for me when I encountered the following 
business rule: "any employee who washed the boss's car during the 
depression is granted a 5 cent pay raise for the rest of his working 
life."   Granted, that wasn't recent, but it was real.

On 10/13/2017 10:26 AM, Charles Wilt wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 3:20 PM, John Yeung <gallium.arsenide@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
> > Ah, but it could be!