Larry Boyd <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Not to support the bad code, but as stated, this was from the original
> VIEW/3000 manual, which would put it circa 1980 (my memory is not good
> enough anymore or was it every? I don't know, I can't remember).  I do
> remember, though, that structured code or maintainable code was just
> becoming a topic in the universities.
 
I've been programming on the HP 3000 for 20 years.
I have nothing against HP.
In fact, I think that VIEW's predecessor, DEL, was a great product.
I read the VIEW/3000 manual when it first came out and couldn't
believe how unstructured the code was.  I had already worked in
several shops with structured programming standards.
I've worked in many HP 3000 shops over the years, only one with VIEW.
I used to work for Cognos.  When Cognos came out with QUICK,
it almost immediately gained 90% market share on the HP 3000.
This shows you what users thought of VIEW/3000.
With block mode, you got computer efficiency, but you got
frustrated users because it had a habit of locking the terminal
for no reason.  With KSAM, you had to rebuild the KSAM files
every time the system crashed.  With FORMSPEC, you got a whole
new set of commands to learn, and it still didn't allow you to
access an IMAGE file in real-time; for that, you had to write a
COBOL program.