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Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!gatech!rutgers!njin!princeton!njsmu!mccc!cosi!bill
From: bill@cosi.UUCP (Bill Michaelson)
Newsgroups: rec.humor,rec.humor.d,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Looking for Computer Folklore
Summary: R U a user-hostile programmer?
Message-ID: <293@cosi.UUCP>
Date: 12 Feb 89 20:05:39 GMT
References: <7143@pyr.gatech.EDU> <532@geovision.UUCP> <768@ur-cc.UUCP> <7136@pucc.Princeton.EDU>
Organization: COS, Inc., Lawrenceville, NJ
Lines: 31

In article <7136@pucc.Princeton.EDU>, BVAUGHAN@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Barbara Vaughan) writes:
] In article <36279@think.UUCP>, barmar@think.COM (Barry Margolin) writes:
] >In article <7129@pucc.Princeton.EDU> BVAUGHAN@pucc.Princeton.EDU writes:
] >>That's when I realized what nonquantitative really meant.
] >>I had to
] >>write a routine to read all keyboard input as characters.
] >>to numbers, and add a friendly message to explain what a number was.
] >
] >Even if you're not dealing with "MBA types", you should always do this
] >in any serious program.  Even people who know what the correct
] >responses are supposed to be sometimes make typos.  You said that your
] >program performed range checks, so why did you consider syntax checks
] >unnecessary until the user screwed up?
] >Thinking Machines Corp.
] 
]  As I said in my original posting, this was early 1970's; most input
]  was still on punch cards.  The whole idea of "users"  other than
]  programmers was a novel one.  My program was actually pretty
]  advanced for its time.  In order to even make a syntax check, I had
]  to write a number of string-handling functions myself.  The syntax
]  checking and character-to-numeric conversions also noticeably slowed
]  down operation of the program.  It could be argued that all in
]  all it was better to let the thing bomb.  Maybe you're too young to
]  remember computing in the early 70's.

Well, how did the non-numeric field ever get past the program on the
keypunch drum card???   (-:

-- 
Bill Michaelson - Reply to: princeton!mccc!cosi!bill
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