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Is It Time for Free-Format?
** This thread discusses the article: Is It Time for Free-Format? **
mscottx wrote: Nothing irritates me more than respectable programmers who are experts in their fields that refuse to advance. What irritates you, is of little concern. There is far more important things occurring on this planet, that should be of greater consequence. My first job in I.T. (it was called D.P. back then) was with a company called McCormick and Dodge. At the time this was the biggest software house in the world. I coded in COBOL on a System/34. If you are not familiar with COBOL, you should be aware that the language is not columnar. In fact if done in a certain manner, it really does read like English. I state this only for the record, that I have been coding in a free form fashion for over a quarter century. I also do some VB and VBA programming. Columnar RPG is my preference. It is a personal preference. I can see things that other coders have written with a greater clarity, and can speed up the coding process for myself. mscottx wrote: This is the IT business people. Unless you work for a software house, no it isn't. The business may be manufacturing, or health care, or distribution, or retail, or banking, or insurance, or whatever, but it is not the I.T. business. To the owners of such a business, I.T. is a cost center, adding nothing tangible to the bottom line. We all know our worth and contributions by expediting the flow of information, but that is not how the I.T. departments are viewed by shareholders, and executives. Consequently the time necessary to rewrite working code in many instances needs to be justified. My best wishes to you, if you do not need to go through this process, but is has been the status quo everywhere I have been. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is a management mantra. Try walking a mile in my shoes before you put the pebbles into your own. Dave
** This thread discusses the article: Is It Time for Free-Format? **
mscottx wrote: Nothing irritates me more than respectable programmers who are experts in their fields that refuse to advance. What irritates you, is of little concern. There is far more important things occurring on this planet, that should be of greater consequence. My first job in I.T. (it was called D.P. back then) was with a company called McCormick and Dodge. At the time this was the biggest software house in the world. I coded in COBOL on a System/34. If you are not familiar with COBOL, you should be aware that the language is not columnar. In fact if done in a certain manner, it really does read like English. I state this only for the record, that I have been coding in a free form fashion for over a quarter century. I also do some VB and VBA programming. Columnar RPG is my preference. It is a personal preference. I can see things that other coders have written with a greater clarity, and can speed up the coding process for myself. mscottx wrote: This is the IT business people. Unless you work for a software house, no it isn't. The business may be manufacturing, or health care, or distribution, or retail, or banking, or insurance, or whatever, but it is not the I.T. business. To the owners of such a business, I.T. is a cost center, adding nothing tangible to the bottom line. We all know our worth and contributions by expediting the flow of information, but that is not how the I.T. departments are viewed by shareholders, and executives. Consequently the time necessary to rewrite working code in many instances needs to be justified. My best wishes to you, if you do not need to go through this process, but is has been the status quo everywhere I have been. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is a management mantra. Try walking a mile in my shoes before you put the pebbles into your own. Dave
My response was "Berlin is Nicht Frei", refering to the fact that all was not free in RPG. I suggested different formats on a forum opened by George Farr. If RPG does not break free and remains stagnant the way it is for past 5 years, your code might as well last for 20 years or less. It seems Hans departure has had a drastic effect on RPG teams progressive attitude. My experience of /free reception is totally different. I was able to convince a lot many shops by showing the new look of the code. How easy it was to maintain etc etc. You have a point here about people from other languages. Indeed those who were convinced were the ones who were familiar with Cobol, C++, Java etc.
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