That one product you want to go back

Question

What is that one product/tool/API/topic that you hated and do not like to go back or think about if somebody asks you.

In one of my projects at McGraw-Hill, I was supposed to work on .NET but was given some VBA work. I had no idea how to work with non-OOPs classes. I did it but it was probably one of the project, I did not like at all. If somebody asks me today, I say, I do not know VBA.

Another product I hate is Crystal Reports. One of the worst product I have ever worked with. Too many bugs and problem. No body knows how to resolve them. Bad product support.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

There are many older-technology software from the IBM Mainframe environment. One that many developers would feel that way about is RPG but it is not Role Playing Games it is Report Program Generator. I actually don't know it but I know that many people would not want to admit knowing it. Another one is DYL-260 and the newer version DYL-280. It also was a report generator type of software. Another is ADF which was an interpreted language and the programs were stored in tables in a database. It was weird. I think the main thing that made RPG DYL-260 DYL-280 and ADF bad is that they all were not designed for large projects but they were also things that were easy to start with. Unfortunately the tendency is for the project to grow more than epected into a mess. Another one was DOS (an operating system) but not the one from Microsoft. The other DOS is much older; dating back to the 1960's. The IBM 360 technology was first released in 1964 and DOS existed then or soon after that. I am sure there are many others but I don't remember any currently. I don't remember any from the Windows environment.