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[Chris Sharman]

>Chris, you've said this before so I'll say this again:
>Unless they've changed the advanced course since I took it,
>Cognos does not advocate (nor does the class manual) excessive
>procedural code. In fact, they teach the opposite, with
>detailed explanation of ACCESS statements and built-in procedures.
>
>> I'm inclined to think early attendance of the advanced course 
>> is a bad thing
>> for this reason: 3GL programmers should be thoroughly 
>> retrained & undergo a
>> prolonged abstinence from procedural code before they're 
>> allowed procedures
>> again, otherwise they can be inclined to take the 
>> (superficially) easy option
>> of retaining their old concepts & methodologies.

Yes, yes. I'll agree that the course material is probably correctly balanced,
but it cannot help but provide die-hard 3GL programmers with the means to avoid
the relatively alien 4GL concepts.

You can call it a failure on the part of some pupils to listen closely, or you
can consider it, as I do, a case of giving them too much training too soon,
and leaving them to pick up the comfortable bits (ie good old 3GL programming).
We sent two people on the advanced course, and one of them included all
procedures ever after, and resisted all persuasion otherwise, although the
other trainee was fine.

The original poster apparently has legacy code from a similar 3GL-happy
programmer, and there are doubtless plenty of them out there: concepts are
_much_ harder to teach and learn than languages.

Perhaps there's a case for a 3/4 day intermediate course, with concepts and
extra procedures (input, edit, process, pre/post etc), leaving the default
procedures alone.

Regards, Chris
______________________________________________________________________
Chris Sharman			Chris.Sharman@CCAgroup.co.uk
CCA Stationery Ltd, Eastway, Fulwood, Preston, Lancashire, PR2 9WS.
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