in reply to Turning Off The Aesthetic Sense

Of course I've no idea what Informix 4GL is like, so I may be way off base - but where applicable, code generators written in something more beautiful (Perl, anyone? :)) might be worth considering as a way to sweep the ugliness under the rug. I assume it might be here, because "barely languages" tend to result in a lot of repetition if you do it "properly" without shortcut hacks, basically devolving to something assembly-ish - in that metaphor, the code generator basically does a primitive compiler's job. (See disclaimer though, might be way off base for Informix 4GL.) Whether the effort is justified depends heavily on the project's dimensions.

Makeshifts last the longest.

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Re(3): Turning Off The Aesthetic Sense
by chip (Curate) on Apr 27, 2003 at 00:33 UTC
    You're on the money. I didn't want to clutter the story with (more) detail, but part of my solution entailed using m4 as a primitive form of code sharing. (Yes, it was that bad.)

        -- Chip Salzenberg, Free-Floating Agent of Chaos

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Re^2: Turning Off The Aesthetic Sense
by FoxtrotUniform (Prior) on Sep 01, 2004 at 22:53 UTC
    ...where applicable, code generators written in something more beautiful (Perl, anyone? :)) might be worth considering as a way to sweep the ugliness under the rug.

    Damn straight. I did that once with an IVR control system called ... um ... well, I guess I've freed up those neurons (thank the gods). Anyhow, my task was originally set as "take this printed spec, and write a control script". By the time I left that job, the task had morphed into "run the XML file from which the printed spec was generated through this Perl script, then get the sysadmin to CVS the results onto the test swerver". Much pain was avoided.

    The moral of this story seems to be: if you're doing something painful on the computer, you should probably write a program to do it for you. After all, that's what programs are for.

    --
    F o x t r o t U n i f o r m
    Found a typo in this node? /msg me
    % man 3 strfry

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      The moral of this story seems to be: if you're doing something painful on the computer, you should probably write a program to do it for you. After all, that's what programs are for.

      Every single program I can think of was done so that a computer could do the annoying bits and leave the fun bits to the people. Computers - the ultimate in slave labor.

      ------
      We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

      Then there are Damian modules.... *sigh* ... that's not about being less-lazy -- that's about being on some really good drugs -- you know, there is no spoon. - flyingmoose

      I shouldn't have to say this, but any code, unless otherwise stated, is untested

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In Section Meditations