On 8/21/2021 9:31 PM, Bob Bridges wrote:
This part of the thread got me thinking. How often do you write a program that
works right the first time, with no compile or execution errors? I'm not
talking about two-liners, of course, or even ten-liners; let's say 30 or
thereabouts. Please specify the language, too, since it seems to me they vary
in error-prone-ness.
I've done it occasionally, but by "occasionally" I mean "less than one time in
twenty"; maybe much less, I'm not sure, and only once in my life when anyone was watching.
That was in PL/C; mostly nowadays I write in REXX and VBA.
In fact my REXXes typically start out with at least ten or fifteen lines of boilerplate,
and any VBA/Excel program likely relies on a raft of common functions and/or objects that
are part of my regular library, so when I say "30 lines", some of those lines
don't really count.
---
Bob Bridges, [email protected], cell 336 382-7313
/* The schools of ancient morality had four cardinal virtues: justice in human
relations, prudence in the directions of affairs, fortitude in bearing trouble
or sorrow, temperance or self-restraint. But they knew nothing of mercy or
forgiveness, which is not natural to the human heart. Forgiveness is an exotic,
which Christ brought with Him from Heaven. -F.B.Meyer */
-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Tom
Brennan
Sent: Wednesday, August 18, 2021 13:41
....one of my other supervisors/teachers would tell me about her application
experience. She said no matter how complex her COBOL programs were, they would
not only compile first time but would run perfectly. This of course was due to
her rigorous desk-checking which I assume took days.
I remember thinking "that's crazy" but I just kept quiet. I'll give her a
break because that could have been at the time of card punching where such desk-checking
made far more sense.
I once wrote an IDMS database exit in assembler that ran correctly the
first time, and never required modification in the years that followed.
It is indeed the rarest of birds. Never before nor since have I had
the pleasure of seeing a program run perfectly the first time and never
require modification.
Regards,
Tom Conley
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