Re: more info - performance with local procedures... -Reply

[Jim Hardesty <jhardest@LMBERRY.COM>]

I agree with Anne-Marie about PeopleSoft's poor documentation of their
procedures.  The PeopleSoft procedures are a great example of how both local
and global procedures can be written badly, hard to use and hard to maintain.

To me the date procedures, which are local procedures, are obtuse to the point of
being unusable.  Even PeopleSoft coders often don't use format-datetime.  In
many programs they cheat the same as we do and use other date formating
routines.

On the other hand their get-??? routines are global and some are just as bad.
The setup variables are poorly documented.  You have to read the actual code to
know  what variables to set up.  And it is just as difficult to determine the resulting
variables.  The code is sometimes sloppy, putting results in a half-dozen
variables, some intentional, some not.

I learned to program in Pascal so I've spent my time with local procedures and
functions.  But in SQR we tend to write global procedures because we find them
easier to read and maintain when they are written cleanly.  Although I understand
others have different preferences, personally, I'd rather see a well written global
procedure than a well written local procedure.  Microseconds of CPU efficiency
are not a concern for us.

jim

>>> Anne-Marie Matula <amatula@OIT.UMASS.EDU> 08/31/99 09:22am >>>
...However I feel it is more important to be able to read and understand the
code.  Here comments help.  PS, I feel doesn't document their procedures and
SQRs enough to easily and quickly understand the processing.