[AccessD] Global Variables Thanks

I started my programming experience trying to get an old star trek program
to run on an old data general mini with 16kb of ram.  It wouldn't load and
AI printed it out on a roll of TTY paper and it stretched 12 feet across the
floor.  In the basic it was written in, functions and subs did not even
exist so everything was global and everything was a go to.  I sat down and
drew connecting lines between the goto line of code and the destination.
Until you do something like that you cannot truly appreciate the term
"spaghetti code", but a pile of spaghetti is exactly what it looked like.
Thus when I moved on to Turbo Pascal where functions existed, and all
variables had to be declared before it could be used, and variables were
strongly typed and you couldn't accidentally pass a float into an integer,
needless to say I was in heaven.  

All tools exist for a reason.  I appreciate good programming practices and I
always look for techniques to make my coding style stronger.  Tools like
strong typing, naming conventions, scope, classes etc are just that, tools
and nothing more.  You can accept them or reject them.  I have had to clean
up behind people who reject them and it isn't fun.  

To go back in and retrofit a working program that uses a ton of globals
probably isn't worth doing.  On the other hand, when designed from scratch,
most programs don't really need all those globals, they were used for the
programmers convenience.  "Programmer convenience" is not a good reason for
bad practice, regardless of what our young Jedi Knight would have you
believe.  Saving keystrokes is the absolute worst reason for not doing
things right.  And I am always suspicious when there is something like
Globals which I am quite easily able to largely avoid, yet someone claims
their program "just has to have millions of them".  

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com 

Contribute your unused CPU cycles to a good cause:
http://folding.stanford.edu/

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Tony Septav
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 10:01 AM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: [AccessD] Global Variables Thanks


Thanks to John, Drew and All
For a long while now I have been reading the postings on the list about 
Global variables "bad practice", "avoid using them", etc.  I have a  
couple of old programs that have been running cleanly for years and they 
use a large amount of global variables. Many of the variables are 
carried through various phases of the project and some are regularly 
being changed/refreshed.  Yes and some are integers.

After reading  "bad practice" I  got worried that I was doing something 
majorily wrong.  I sat down  and tried to figure out how I would carry 
some of these variables forward. It amounted to a large increase in the 
code necessary to do this and in some cases it involved complex/messy 
error trapping  vs simple declaring the variable and trapping for errors.

Anyway after this discussion I am now aware of what is meant by and in 
what circumstances individuals deem it "bad practice" and  that on the 
otherhand handled properly  it is not necessarily a
bad thing.  Another thing to keep in the back of my mind when developing 
an application.

Old dog new tricks.





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