You have to love it when a manager tells you not to use a COBOL verb but instead to use COBOL..
Fortunately, some <https://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3/#bosses> bosses are better than that. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> on behalf of Farley, Peter <0000031df298a9da-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> Sent: Friday, March 15, 2024 4:19 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Learning one's tools +1 from me on continuing to learn the tools of our profession. I use STRING and UNSTRING where they make sense, and I am still learning new things about their use every now and then. Life-long learning is the only path to happiness and success. I got the same ridiculous pushback from a senior manager one time on the use of “sophisticated” SORT verbs like JOIN because “. . . no one but you will know how to fix it when it breaks . . . let someone do it in COBOL instead . . .”. Peter From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of Bob Bridges Sent: Friday, March 15, 2024 12:38 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Learning one's tools To rant on a related subject, I once worked at a company that instituted code reviews; a new program would be gone over by a half-dozen coworkers to be sure it adhered to local standards. This sort of thing is always painful to the coder, and nevertheless (I admit reluctantly) can have considerable value if done right. One problem I had with it, though, is that the standards we created for ourselves admitted that there are times when exceptions should be made for special cases, and yet when those cases arose no exceptions were ever allowed; the team invariably flinched, leaned back in their seats and said "no, that's not according to our standards". One particular example always rankled: Whenever someone felt the need to use a STRING or UNSTRING command (I should have said we were COBOL developers), the team always struck it down on the grounds that STRING and UNSTRING are unusual commands and some COBOL coders would be unfamiliar with it. My contention here is that that's absolutely true, and it's the job of the COBOL coder to ~learn~ the STRING and UNSTRING statements, as tools of his profession. I never persuaded anyone to that view, though. --- This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and delete the message and any attachments from your system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
