RE: Full free form and /copy or /include

Why is pretty easy for me... if the code is 30 years old, it stands to reason that those who wrote it are either retired or worse.

Eventually, there will come a time (sooner than you might think) that almost no one will be able to read or diagnose issues in code written 30 years ago. I used to work in it all the time, now I can barely read it.

The code may not change, but the data and business processes change often.

-----Original Message-----
From: RPG400-L [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Eddie Gomez
Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2019 11:30 AM
To: RPG programming on IBM i <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: David Gibbs <david@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Full free form and /copy or /include

I agree. I’m currently at a shop that has 30 year old legacy code. It works fine and there is no need to touch it. There is also 20+ year old spaghetti code written by others that get re-done and modernized if need be, or simply cleaned up.

Businesses running these systems aren’t going to spend money and resources to migrate the code to something more modern if there is literally no need for it.

I understand as a developer my wanting to get shops like these more current, but I know what the CTO will ask if I ever entertain the subject.. “why”?

On Oct 1, 2019, at 06:32, David Gibbs via RPG400-L <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Mon, Sep 30, 2019 at 11:09 PM <dlclark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"RPG400-L" <rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote on 09/30/2019
11:43:16 PM:

I (sadly) promoted a CL like that a couple of weeks ago. GOTO for a
RCVF loop, no subroutines, just disgusting.

So why didn't you change it to a DOWHILE?

This brings up an important point ... why change something that's working?

Don't get me wrong ... I'm all for improving existing code. But changing
something that isn't in scope is just introducing unnecessary risk.

david
--
IBM i on Power Systems: For when you can't afford to be out of business!

I'm riding in the American Diabetes Association's Tour de Cure to raise
money for diabetes research, education, advocacy, and awareness. You can
make a tax-deductible donation to my ride by visiting
https://mideml.diabetessucks.net.

You can see where my donations come from by visiting my interactive
donation map ... https://mideml.diabetessucks.net/map (it's a geeky thing).

I may have diabetes, but diabetes doesn't have me!
--
This is the RPG programming on IBM i (RPG400-L) mailing list
To post a message email: RPG400-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: https://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/rpg400-l
or email: RPG400-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at https://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l.

Please contact support@xxxxxxxxxxxx for any subscription related questions.

Help support midrange.com by shopping at amazon.com with our affiliate link: https://amazon.midrange.com