Re: Multiplicity, Change and MV

Bob Badour wrote:
> Jan Hidders wrote:
>
> > B Faux wrote:
> >
> >>[...] Just Google the recent experience of Reynolds and
> >>Reynolds in their attempt to shift their product from an MV implementation
> >>to an SQL implementation (I believe they flushed more than 60 million
> >>dollars down the drain with zero deliverable to show for it.)
> >
> >
> > Unless you can tell us with certainty what went wrong in this case this
> > doesn't even qualify as anecdotal evidence. For all we know the problem
> > was that the MV product they used let's you get away with so much
> > sloppy data modelling that at this time all hope of turning it into a
> > well-structured one was lost.
> >
> > -- Jan Hidders
>
> Not to mention the high probability they employed people whose cognitive
> abilities were long ago destroyed by Pick use in the implementation.

I think you have made it quite clear that you think ALL pick programmers/users are stupid. I don't think that attitude contributes anything to this discussion. Calling people idiots does not make you look smart, just the opposite, it makes you look like a jerk.

The company I work for has some first hand knowledge of Reynolds & Reynolds. I think the GUI/RM/SQL based product was not build by the Pick programmers, so you comments are meaningless. After a period of time, they were unable to convince current or new customers to use the new product. I don't know why, maybe 10,000 car dealers are all stupid and just want to continue using stupid Pick based software. ;-) By the way, if you ask the car dealers what database they are using, most would say R&R and they may never have heard of Pick. They buy the product because it works.

I have worked on several and the owners of the business like them because they (the owners) are cheap bastards that would rather spend their money on something that works instead of somehting that "in theory" might work. Most Pick users are medium sized companies and have one or two people running the IT department. One company I'm very fimilar with is a wholesale & retail auto parts company. They have about 100 stores and an IT staff of two, one of them maintains the Pick system, the other one maintains PC's and the network. If they had a SQL system, how many RM/SQL people would be needed for that size company?

Some of the Pick users have less than one person running the system. The point of this is that Pick systems are cheaper to operate and maintain and this is the reason the owners like them. Pick programmers like Pick because we can make changes quickly. One company I worked for operated a real time* stock trading company and made changes to on-line programs on the fly. Yes, scary, but they loved it. * The Stock traders expected very quick response as stock prices can change in an instant.

How many Pick projects have you worked on?

The main downside to being a Pick programmer is that we only get paid about half as much as a SQL DBA. Ah, maybe that does make us stupid. :-)

Pick software is a tool and can be used by dumb people to write dumb software or by smart people to write good software. As Mr. Pick reportedly said, "I give them a long rope".

Cheers,
Don
Proud to be a Pick programmer. Received on Mon Apr 24 2006 - 05:58:34 CEST