Re: Active X problems was Re: It's COBOL, Jim, but not as we know it...

Pete Dashwood wrote:

You can. If you have the source you can extend a method or property,
if you don't have the source you can suggest an improvement to the
developer. (Most developers are very pleased to hear feedback on
their components, and will do what they can to accommodate you.)

Of course this is one of the nominally swell features of Active-X,
but contraindicated in the case at hand.

I think that's just silly.

You are saying write code for every instance of everything, so it can
be available for modification, should the need arise. (The fact that
it is available for modification is not conducive to thinking a bit
more before modifying it...)

No, I'm not saying that. I'm admitting that abstraction has its place but
its place isn't EVERY place .




The function of a component is to do what it does; not do something
like what it does because you think it should. Perhaps you need to
extend it with some added functionality; fine, write another
component and use them both to achieve your aim. You don't modify
existing behaviour unless you want to reap the whirlwind.

Or, in my case, ignore the proffered component because it is non-modifiable.


(I realise this may be a foreign concept to people used to working in
COBOL...)

If you had the source of the component you would be changing it
whenever you felt there was a need to, and that would defeat the
whole object of it. You would then find other programs which used it
no longer functioned correctly and the result would be what is
accepted on most COBOL sites: maintaining code will require most of
the budget.

Oh bother! It's trivial, in a subroutine for example, to accommodate legacy
activities while using (most of) the subroutine's code for the new or
different condition.



Personally, I don't really care whether you use String2Num or not; it
was intended to demonstrate a concept. I use it and find it very
handy. I have done so for 7 years now and never maintained it, apart
from recently adding the completely new functionality to support
floating point. (So, far I'm happy to report that none of my
applications have broken because I did this...)

You added functionality to handle floating point! You took a chance on
corrupting many years worth of established results to ADD something that
could have been just as easily handled by another component? What's the
strategic difference between adding space <> zero and adding floating point
conversions?

Why not check for floating point before invoking the component and handling
floating point stuff in a completely separate module? That way the original
component would remain unsullied and the chance of corrupting hundreds of
other modules would be zero? That you would have to replicate 2/3rds of the
original code is but a small price to pay for integrity!



It isn't about ActiveX, it is about encapsulated functionality vs
bespoke programming. Mental adjustment is required to move to a
component based approach. It really is not about technology.

No, for some, it is a religious experience.


Slowly the shop floor adjusts to the new processes required by the
package. Three years later you ask them if it is any good. They can't
imagine life without it.


"Come let us gather at the river..."


.

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