My apologies if this has already been mentioned, but the likelihood of a program I've written executing correctly the first time, is almost always commensurate with the time I've spent reviewing/walking thru the code before testing. For me, this relationship holds true regardless of language.
Mike -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bob Bridges Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2021 9:31 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Programs that work right the first time. Caution! This message was sent from outside your organization. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
