Interesting lookup processing

[John Esak]

Sorry, the book is "Dealers In Lightning" not "Dealers In Lighting"  :-)  If
you get the latter, you'd probably learn how Home Depot was started... :-)

John
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: filepro-list-bounces+john=valar.com at lists.celestial.com 
> [mailto:filepro-list-bounces+john=valar.com at lists.celestial.co
m] On Behalf Of John Esak
> Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 2:19 AM
> To: mschw at athenet.net
> Cc: filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
> Subject: RE: Interesting lookup processing
> 
> Mike,
> I have been doing this code since the first day I ever programmed in
> filePro... Don't you do this....
> 
> Lookup npio=npio ... ...
> Not npio
> Lookup npio=npioarchive ... ...
> ...
> ...
> 
> Why would you think this wouldn't work. The first lookup 
> fails, it is not
> active, period.  So the next lookup is done.... Etc.
> 
> Incidentally, I'm not kidding about using this since the 
> first time lookup
> was ever release with the r=free option.  Like this...
> 
> Lookup there=file  k=25 i=N -nx
> Not there
> Lookup there=file r=free
> There(2)=this and that... Etc.
> 
> If a rcord isn't there already... Make one and keep the 
> processing after
> that the same.  In other words if the record exists, update 
> it, if it isn't,
> create it first and then hpdate it as if it was there... :-)  
>  With the
> incedibly complex code you've worked on in your career 'm 
> really surprised
> you never saw this ubiquitous construction.
> 
> John
> 
> P.S. By the way, I'm not saying I thought this construction 
> up... It was
> just always there... I's probably a Ken or a Dave or even a Howie....
> Rmember, I had the luxury, honor, luck to be working at the 
> company where we
> were thinking up this filePro program day by day from scratch.  Nancy
> Palmquist, myself and a couple others joined when Ken, Dave, 
> Howie, and
> Barry Wiseman were making do when lookup could not actually change the
> fields in a looked up file.  In fact when Dave Roeger wrote 
> that code ... So
> that lookup could actually "post" to aa looked up file... He 
> decided to call
> it "dreport" in stead of "report"... Then all the "d" tools 
> happened in
> pretty quick cuccession.  This was a time, when one could 
> literally walk
> into the programmers room (at say 2pm) where Ken, Dave and 
> another one or
> two guys would just put something you needed into the code on 
> the spot.
> "Hey, I need it to do this..."  They would think for a second 
> and then say,
> oh, good idea, but how about if it worked this way... You 
> would usually end
> up saying.. "Oh, that's even better!"  The 4pm version of the 
> program would
> have it in there. Two days later, it would have 5 options and 
> be documented.
> 1984 ws not only an amazing book only titled only 30 years 
> too early... It
> was an absolutely amazing time to be working in the personal computer
> industry at its dawn... When Macintosh wasn't even a gleam... 
> When IBM was
> the only way to go.. And they were making mistakes like 
> buying operating
> system licenses from Microsoft instead of just buying the 
> company outright.
> Within the next decade, Microsoft actually became *bigger* 
> than IBM... And
> on and on.... 
> 
> 
> Of course, it was all started at AT&T and even more so at 
> Xeroc PARC.  Like
> I have said over and over again here. It's a little earlier 
> by 10 years, but
> get a hold of the book "Dealers In Lighting"... You will not 
> be able to put
> it down, and you will be flabberghasted as to how the things 
> you use ever
> minute of your life were invented.
> 
> John
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: filepro-list-bounces+john=valar.com at lists.celestial.com 
> > [mailto:filepro-list-bounces+john=valar.com at lists.celestial.co
> m] On Behalf Of Mike Schwartz
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 10:49 PM
> > To: 'filePro Mailing List'
> > Subject: Interesting lookup processing
> > 
> >      I was looking at some programs written by another 
> > programmer over 10
> > years ago, and ran into this code that I didn't think would 
> > work reliably,
> > but it has for over 10 years now:
> > 
> > -----
> > :
> > lookup INVEN K=2 (blah, blah)
> > -----
> > Not INVEN
> > Lookup INVEN = ARCINVEN k=2 (blah, blah)
> > -----
> > :
> > 3=INVEN(4)
> > -----
> > 
> > 
> >      I would have bet, internally, that filePro would get 
> > confused by the
> > "dual" use of the word INVEN, especially if one part was 
> > found in the active
> > inventory file and the next part was found in the archive 
> > inventory file.
> > 
> >      Is this something that potentially could be causing 
> > problems, or is
> > this perfectly legitimate code?
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > 
> > Mike Schwartz
> > 
> >   
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Filepro-list mailing list
> > Filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
> > http://mailman.celestial.com/mailman/listinfo/filepro-list
> > 
> 
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