Re: The joy of FORTRAN

On 2/28/25 2:56 AM, rbowman wrote:

On Fri, 28 Feb 2025 01:19:38 -0500, c186282 wrote:
 

    I only used SQL to do the initial selection - and then more custom
    code to go through/organize that. Table-joins and the rest are just
    too evil. No "simple" once you get to that junk (and it's SLOW too).
    Dump the initial find to a file and use 'C' to go on from there.

 We had a person who handcrafted a query using a wide range of DB2 scalar
functions. I have no idea how many hours it took and it kept growing. I
don't remember the DB2 version but it broke on some sites where the DB2
version had a 4k limit rather than the later 8k.
 I knew what it was supposed to do but I didn't have a clue how it did it.
The idea was to provide configurable queries that a user could modify for
their needs but that one got handed down to generations of support people
untouched.  That was the case for a lot of the 'configurable' reports. It
would have been easier to hard code the reports.

   I wrote an "unlimited sorting levels" function once
   for Revelation DB ... pretty compact ... and not long
   afterwards I could NOT figure out how it worked. It *did*
   work though. Sometimes ya just get 'in the zone' when
   writing code and maybe yer head can't get back there
   later on ?
   The 'configurable' stuff ... sometimes you get a sort of
   next-level idea that SOUNDS great, but by the time you
   really get into it then it WOULD be just easier to
   write one-off reports or whatever.
   Once got about three days into a socket server, and
   scope-creep took over. Then I suddenly, rudely,
   realized I was re-inventing the FTP server. Oh well  :-)