More Than One Way To Skin A Cat
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A few years back, I started a consulting engagement. We took over support of all client/server programs. Get this, it was a public utility and all internal databases were in Access. Anyway, there was a large complicated program written by a non-programmer. How bad was the code? Well, if there was more than one way to connect to a database, the "programmer" used each type. If there was more than one way to do ANYTHING, they used every method. Then, to top it off, whenever we would make a change in one section of the program (tons of SQL) then another part would break. Each time a bug would be raised, it would be a few hours for fixing, testing, and fixing the sections that should not have broke but did. We stopped answering our phones at 4pm because we wanted to go home at 5. Otherwise, we'd work into dinner time.
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A few years back, I started a consulting engagement. We took over support of all client/server programs. Get this, it was a public utility and all internal databases were in Access. Anyway, there was a large complicated program written by a non-programmer. How bad was the code? Well, if there was more than one way to connect to a database, the "programmer" used each type. If there was more than one way to do ANYTHING, they used every method. Then, to top it off, whenever we would make a change in one section of the program (tons of SQL) then another part would break. Each time a bug would be raised, it would be a few hours for fixing, testing, and fixing the sections that should not have broke but did. We stopped answering our phones at 4pm because we wanted to go home at 5. Otherwise, we'd work into dinner time.
joemerchant wrote:
databases were in Access
joemerchant wrote:
written by a non-programmer. How bad was the code?
Who cares about the skill level of the "programmer". Being written in Access is bad enough! :-D
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP Visual Developer - Visual Basic
2006, 2007 -
joemerchant wrote:
databases were in Access
joemerchant wrote:
written by a non-programmer. How bad was the code?
Who cares about the skill level of the "programmer". Being written in Access is bad enough! :-D
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP Visual Developer - Visual Basic
2006, 2007Dave Kreskowiak wrote:
Being written in Access is bad enough!
Yes, being written in bad enough, but, for SOME (very few) instances, that may be the best option available. There is a missions orgnanization near me that sends people to various areas of the world - they have no computer support near by, so, simple apps are written in Access for them to use... if they have to, they can probably ZIP the files to a floppy and mail them back to the support size if a program arises. Again, not preferable, but what is best for them. Tim
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joemerchant wrote:
databases were in Access
joemerchant wrote:
written by a non-programmer. How bad was the code?
Who cares about the skill level of the "programmer". Being written in Access is bad enough! :-D
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP Visual Developer - Visual Basic
2006, 2007 -
A few years back, I started a consulting engagement. We took over support of all client/server programs. Get this, it was a public utility and all internal databases were in Access. Anyway, there was a large complicated program written by a non-programmer. How bad was the code? Well, if there was more than one way to connect to a database, the "programmer" used each type. If there was more than one way to do ANYTHING, they used every method. Then, to top it off, whenever we would make a change in one section of the program (tons of SQL) then another part would break. Each time a bug would be raised, it would be a few hours for fixing, testing, and fixing the sections that should not have broke but did. We stopped answering our phones at 4pm because we wanted to go home at 5. Otherwise, we'd work into dinner time.
Live and learn! Programs like that is what made me so good at debugging. I was brought into a company to write a custom program and was later hired full time. One of my duties was to maintain and update their software. The first time I looked at the code I automatically wanted to rewrite it. I tried to fix the 350+ warning messages (most should have been errors), but doing so broke the code; that was out. Although I had discovered that touching a single line of code anywhere could break it, I soon learned how to modify it without breaking it. Rule #1: Ye shall break down your code into individual stand-alone pieces, so that changing them has little or no effect on the rest.
INTP "Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence."Edsger Dijkstra
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Live and learn! Programs like that is what made me so good at debugging. I was brought into a company to write a custom program and was later hired full time. One of my duties was to maintain and update their software. The first time I looked at the code I automatically wanted to rewrite it. I tried to fix the 350+ warning messages (most should have been errors), but doing so broke the code; that was out. Although I had discovered that touching a single line of code anywhere could break it, I soon learned how to modify it without breaking it. Rule #1: Ye shall break down your code into individual stand-alone pieces, so that changing them has little or no effect on the rest.
INTP "Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence."Edsger Dijkstra