[mso] Re: OT: Dian please AND OTHERS
- From: "Ray Blake" <ray@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 07:41:47 +0100
And here is the crux of this whole argument. You are far more likely to
be able to do the clever stuff without programming in Excel than in ANY
other programme.
I once wrote a system to generate role play case studies for training
financial advisers. It crunched about 250 fields for each record, did a
lot of sums, then merged everything into a big Word document. The only
code it needed was around 20 lines to automate the merge with Word. It
was written, tested and working perfectly in a day.
The client wanted an Access interface for the system. That one took over
a week, and has code coming out of its ears (which I'm still debugging!)
By contrast, I just made another big system which allows training
administrators to juggle training course nominations and bookings. It
records people who need to go on courses, what courses you are running,
when and where they are booked, etc. It prints waiting lists, course
delegate lists, and my favourite part is the calendar, which in glorious
colour shows your company's training programme on a wall calendar for
any 13-week period you choose, just like one of those Sasco wall charts.
How much code? TWO LINES. That makes it easier to create, easier to
debug, easier to maintain, easier to document.
As a coder, you pass through several stage of development:
Ignorance - "Why would I need to code"
Wonder - "Wow, look what some guy did with code"
Resolve - "I'm going to be able to code like that soon"
Setback - "I'm never going to get the hang of coding"
Triumph - "Yes, I did it - my code worked"
Hubris - "I can do anything now - I am a code master"
Maturity - "I choose not to code if it can be avoided"
Ray Blake
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-----Original Message-----
From: mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Greg Chapman
Sent: 13 September 2003 02:09
To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [mso] Re: OT: Dian please AND OTHERS
<chuckle> I used to say the same thing until I got ticked off one time
too
many about my limited options without it. Where possible, I prefer to
not
program but when it's obvious I'll have to in order to produce what I
want, well, break out the twinkies. ;>
Greg Chapman
http://www.mousetrax.com
"Counting in binary is as easy as 01, 10, 11!
With thinking this clear, is coding really a good idea?"
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