Re: Decimal versus binary arithmetic was Re: J4 - presentation/discussion on "Future of the COBOL Standard"

In article <lesdv3pds3tee2vekk00kf2oahm4p4l8b7@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
Robert  <no@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>On Sat, 5 Apr 2008 01:39:33 +0000 (UTC), docdwarf@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 () wrote:
>
>>In article <c2ldv3dtaij23o1d7h2377975e2053k57d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
>>Robert  <no@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>>On Fri, 04 Apr 2008 07:50:39 -0600, Howard Brazee <howard@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
>>
>>[snip]
>>
>>>> Also, packed decimal was (and is) significantly quicker in
>>>>when the application wants Display and computational use of the same
>>>>number.
>>>
>>>Why was it used when the application did not need both formats, which
>>>was most of the time?
>>
>>I cannot speak for any cir***stances beyond my own limited experiences,
Mr 
>>Wagner... but those have it that the reason *any* method was used at
*any* 
>>time was because Someone of Sufficient Authority deemed it so.
>
>You're overly hung up on pleasing the bossman. Imagine being the
>bossman, the one who makes such decisions. 

My desire, Mr Wagner, is to do the job I am paid to do; I cannot do that 
if someone tells Security to de-activate my badge which lets me into the 
building.  Were I to do as you asked immediately above ('imagine being the

bossman') then it might be only by chance that I could answer your earlier

question ('why was it done'); I would be a one-who-imagined, not a 
one-who-did.

>
>>Have you never seen a job-site where something similar took place?
>
>As a contractor, I cannot criticize poor decision processes in real life
>(only here).

Leaving aside that you were asked what you had seen, not what you can or 
cannot do...

.... I do not know what you acre calling 'criticizing', Mr Wagner, but as
a 
contractor I have said many, many times 'I believe that there could be 
difficulties with this because of (reason); now that I have stated this...

what you're doing does not violate what I assume to be my set of 
professional ethics nor my personal integrity so let me give you what you 
are paying for.'

When - not if - saying something like that gets my badge de-activated then

I find another job... that's what consultants/contractors/hired guns do, 
or so I've seen.

DD