Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: rbowman Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: The joy of FORTRAN Date: 1 Oct 2024 18:39:26 GMT Lines: 21 Message-ID: References: <5mqdnZuGq4lgwm_7nZ2dnZfqnPSdnZ2d@earthlink.com> <1r0e6u9.1tubjrt1kapeluN%snipeco.2@gmail.com> <156256844.748909906.434683.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> <1696219735.749088927.121438.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: individual.net Ugvq4/2EqLap1gK7DG65Zw5qM+B9GSTtCbdiiuq+aHptVTS+06 Cancel-Lock: sha1:WJLsL8W0u7vh6o77S54o7JYm91c= sha256:w9p70xVhM7FsDljWyATxIy5Ojtd7Rgplxb4Fb8BIZ7c= User-Agent: Pan/0.149 (Bellevue; 4c157ba) Xref: csiph.com alt.folklore.computers:227349 comp.os.linux.misc:58858 On Mon, 30 Sep 2024 21:47:07 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote: > On 30 Sep 2024 19:53:49 GMT, rbowman wrote: > >> I've worked with interfaces where the data fields are determined by the >> character position in the string with spaces used to pad fields. It was >> fun explaining to the support people configuring the queries that what >> appeared to be an empty field had to be exactly 5 spaces or the whole >> thing would be thrown off. > > Leftovers from the punch-card era, perhaps? > > I would wrap that in some kind of more user-friendly frontend, that > would accept more forgiving input, and properly pack it into the > necessary fixed-length fields for the backend. Maybe you would but the FDLE doesn't seem to be so inclined. https://www.fdle.state.fl.us/About-Us.aspx You always underestimate the impact of legacy systems.