At 12:21 2013-02-15, Ken Dibble <[email protected]> wrote:
Many data entry systems allow one to omit needless
punctuation. For example, one can enter today as
20130215
or
130215
(using YMD order). Tell me how you would distinguish between the
date and an amount of $20,130,215 or $201,302.15. The digits --
what is entered -- are the same.
I do not create data entry controls that allow for ambiguous input.
I format and mask them so that doesn't happen.
If you mask them, then you make them potentially
ambiguous. Masking saves the DE person from having to enter the punctuation.
I am not a professionally trained programmer, and I will bet you
that the people who created this software are. So much for
professional training.
I take extreme exception to your swipe. Professional
training is not all that is required. The people using the system
also have to care about what they enter. If they enter garbage,
there is no guarantee that it can be caught. Some may well be,
but some bad entries may look just like valid data. How can you
tell which is which?
It is a basic principle of programming that the system should be
designed to prevent as many data-entry errors as possible.
Data-entry clerks are often not very well paid or trained.
Programmers who are both are supposed to compensate for that. To
claim otherwise is to misplace responsibility for quality.
As many as possible. You did not answer my question. How
would you tell the difference? If you can not tell the difference,
then you can not catch the error. (Or you will refuse everything.)
Programmers can not completely compensate for a program being
used inappropriately. Yes, we can catch certain errors, but others, no.
You are misplacing responsibility. You are blaming end user
misuse on the programmers. It is the end user's responsibility to
use the program correctly.
If someone does not train a program operator on how to use the
program, how is that the fault of the programmer?
And this also argues in favor of database software (like VFP) that
has unique date data types that can't be confused with anything else.
I have news for you. VFP date types can be entered without
having to enter the punctuation. For example, today can be entered as
20130215
Huh? Try this:
CREATE TABLE foobar FREE (somedate D)
INSERT INTO foobar (somedate) VALUES (20130215)
You'll get a data type mismatch error.
I said "enter". We were discussing data entry. You are moving
the goalposts.
It is easy to make mistakes. You did so yourself. Both of
the URLs that you provided are erroneous.
I copied and pasted that part of the email without checking the
links. I should have done that. But I exercise far more care when
writing code that handles money, or dates, or anything else, than I
do when copying and pasting into emails.
It is easy to make some mistakes while programming, but not others.
If you follow basic procedures for validating data, the kinds of
procedures that any entry-level programmer should know, you don't
make the kind of mistake described here.
This wasn't a complex or difficult task. It was an extremely simple,
basic task, and the people responsible for it failed to get it done
correctly. That's not "sometimes mistakes are unavoidable", that's
incompetence.
Yes, but you have not demonstrated that it was the programmers
who were at fault.
In diagnosing problems with the client billing system that I
maintain, I keep in mind that the end user can make mistakes. Some
bug reports turn out to be the end user doing something wrong. I
correct my errors, but the end user must correct his.
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko
_______________________________________________
Post Messages to: [email protected]
Subscription Maintenance: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox
OT-free version of this list: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech
Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox
This message:
http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/20130215213343.HJHL23453.priv-edmwes48.telusplanet.net@edmwcm03
** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the
author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added
to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
