Scope is either local or global, but not here

Having an animated discussion with a Java programmer is not always the best way to start or finish you day. Java programmers have a valid point about the strong typing of variables that Java requires. This was no contest with Java and UniBasic, because I have spent the better part of the last two weeks changing our Java U2WebLink. I really know what scope is after trying to figure out why Eclipse editor kept pointing out to me that I had my code in the wrong area for the try/catch loop to work.

Had I not been programming in UniBasic so long, I should have known what variable scope is. All of the variables you create in UniBasic are global, so what is the local scope thing anyways. Wikipedia defines local scope as: “…a variable that accessible only from the function or block in which is declared.”

In UniBasic a variable is assigned through a couple of ways. It must be on the left side of any operation such as math or string manipulation. You can introduce variables through Common statements, includes or my perennial favorite Subroutine calls.

So now you ask yourself how a UniBasic programmer keeps track of all of those variables. Surprise I don’t. That’s right I don’t. If the programmer before us was good or bad I don’t sometimes care with how prior programmer handled the variables. If the program is working then the variables are handled correctly. When the program starts malfunctioning then I have to care and must trace the problem.

That is where the fly is in ointment. UniBasic programmers have no tool to show us where all the variables are assigned or re-assigned which Java programmers have built into the Eclipse Java Editor.

U2logic has begun to approach this problem in our XLr8Editor that is based on the Eclipse IDE. Hopefully, in the next few months I will have something positive to show that UniBasic programmers can control their scope as well.

My way or the Indian Highway

A recent discussion prompted me to contemplate about whether we should be worried about all of the out sourcing that is being done in our industry. We believed we have not had to worry about this to much because our UniBasic knowledge is not easily transferred because of the vast differences in architecture, language, programming styles, and the lack of modern tools. If outsourcing companies are offering anywhere from 10 to 30 per hour for programming services we should be worried about our livelihood.

Then again from a recent article about developers using the Salesforce.com platform called Force.com. In that article it stated that developers are 4.9 times faster at building Web applications then conventional .Net and Java methods.

If we, using our latest tool set from U2logic called XLr8 or Rocket Software’s U2 tools, can build Web applications 4.9 times faster we can compete. We know we can.

We have built Accounting, Alpaca Herd Management, CRM, Distribution, Document Management, Payroll, Transportation (Broker, Food Service, and Moving and Storage), and Warehousing that are all Web based and run multi-tenant. We did do it.

Let’s do the math. For example, the outsourcer is getting 20/hour. We can charge 4.0 times or 80/hour, if we are more efficient or nearly 100/hour if hit the average. Now with our business process knowledge, our 20 plus years of expertise in the MV world, and other accumulated skills, we can get our chargeable hourly wage justifiably so.

There have been companies such as Nucor in the steel industry that figured out how to compete against cheaper rivals. We can too.