• andrewjb (unregistered)

    How about:

    --> "F" - represents Fortunately True --> "T" - represents Terribly False.

  • Anon (unregistered)

    "F"or Sure/"N"ever?

  • Anonymous (unregistered)

    --> "F" - represents False --> "N" - represents Not False --> "FNF" - represents File Not Found

    (Sorry, but someone had to do it)

  • The Corrector (unregistered)
    The Article:
    --> "F" - represents False --> "N" - represents Not False --> "I" - represents FileNotFound
    FTFY
  • trwtf (unregistered)

    But what did they do for FileNotFound?

  • Kevin (unregistered)

    AS/400s are actually kind of nice. They are pretty stable, we have a custom POS written in RPG. (I do C# stuff though)

    Anyway, as for the article, shouldn't the fact that he didn't even look into the job offer before accepting TRWTF?

  • trwtf (unregistered) in reply to The Corrector
    The Corrector:
    The Article:
    --> "F" - represents False --> "N" - represents Not False --> "I" - represents FileNotFound
    FTFY

    FTFY --> Kinda-sorta, yes and no, hard to say

  • ray10k (unregistered)

    how about

    "Y" --> yes (true) "N" --> no (false) "M" --> maybe (FileNotFound)

  • drusi (unregistered)

    This post returns N, for Not First.

  • Bobbo (unregistered)

    I once worked with an in-house language which didn't have the ability to represent decimal points. So all such numbers were multiplied up by 100 or 10000 to retain the .00 or .0000 precision, then passed around/stored as needed, then divided back down for display.

    Genius.

  • Sgeo (unregistered)

    JT JF N

    I trust someone else will provide the expansions.

  • KDP (unregistered)

    How about W/WN for Why? / Why Not?

  • (cs) in reply to Kevin
    Kevin:
    Anyway, as for the article, shouldn't the fact that he didn't even look into the job offer before accepting TRWTF?

    A lot of college grads take what they can get so they can start accruing experience. What did you expect him to ask, "How many different ways do you represent boolean logic in your program?" Even if he did ask, would he get an honest answer?

  • anon (unregistered) in reply to Kevin
    Kevin:
    AS/400s are actually kind of nice. They are pretty stable, we have a custom POS written in RPG. (I do C# stuff though)

    Anyway, as for the article, shouldn't the fact that he didn't even look into the job offer before accepting TRWTF?

    we also have a custom PoS written in RPG. I don't think PoS means the same to me as it does to you though :(

  • trwtf (unregistered) in reply to Bobbo
    Bobbo:
    I once worked with an in-house language which didn't have the ability to represent decimal points. So all such numbers were multiplied up by 100 or 10000 to retain the .00 or .0000 precision, then passed around/stored as needed, then divided back down for display.

    Genius.

    You mean like you do for dealing with currency? No, just normal practice.

  • Leo (unregistered)

    ABAP (based on Cobol) still suffers from char-bool variables today, which are usually treated as if they were "checkboxes", i.e., "X" = true and " " = false.

  • Captain Oblivious (unregistered)

    Clearly, there's nothing else it couldn't mean. Er, I mean there doesn't exist something that is what it couldn't mean. Or, well, for everything that it couldn't be, it couldn't be something else. Amongst it possible possibilities, there is something that it could be that it couldn't be. Oh, bugger, I'll come in again.

  • Woody (unregistered) in reply to akatherder
    akatherder:
    Even if he did ask, would he get an honest answer?

    "N"

  • trwtf (unregistered)

    This should be no problem for anyone who's familiar with the "Knights and Knaves" puzzles.

  • is0lated (unregistered)

    And here I was thinking it was going to be

    --> "F" - represents Fuck yeah --> "N" - represents No

  • Bryan the K (unregistered)

    The Real WTF is he didn't ask questions about day to day operations and the languages he'd be working with.

    I know the economy is bad - but it's better than going to the insane asylum after you go crazy working on that code.

  • (cs)

    At least it had a comment to clear up which value was "true" and which was "false".

    Since the other examples followed the order of true/false (T/F, Y/N, 1/0), I assumed F/N was in the same order (F=true, N=false). Trying to write code to handle a potential false value of "F" and a potential true value of "F" would have been interesting.

    Maybe it should have said N/F for, um... consistency...

  • Kevin (unregistered) in reply to anon
    anon:
    we also have a custom PoS written in RPG. I don't think PoS means the same to me as it does to you though :(
    I haven't had a chance to play around with it much, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a PoS POS considering the language of choice.
  • Sunnyboy (unregistered)

    My only comment is "yea, and....?"

    So the newly minted comp-sci type encountered the real world.

    How about a good story for a change?

    -S

  • Foodstuff (unregistered)

    Ugh... losing... will... to live...

  • Matt Westwood (unregistered) in reply to Bobbo
    Bobbo:
    I once worked with an in-house language which didn't have the ability to represent decimal points. So all such numbers were multiplied up by 100 or 10000 to retain the .00 or .0000 precision, then passed around/stored as needed, then divided back down for display.

    Genius.

    I still work for a company whose in-house language still does this very thing (except it's 10 and 100). Indeed, it's called "fixed point representation" and allows greater precision and works significantly faster than that new-fangled "floating point" rubbish.

    CAPTCHA: sagaciter: someone who provides footnotes to the Icelandic Eddas?

  • (cs) in reply to akatherder
    akatherder:
    Kevin:
    Anyway, as for the article, shouldn't the fact that he didn't even look into the job offer before accepting TRWTF?

    A lot of college grads take what they can get so they can start accruing experience. What did you expect him to ask, "How many different ways do you represent boolean logic in your program?" Even if he did ask, would he get an honest answer?

    How about, "What is CSIS, and what is VSAM?"

    F: False N: Nuh-uh (the counter to Uh-huh)

  • saepius (unregistered)

    TRWTF is not upgrading your system from an old, dead language. The stupid blokes around here are still using Java, for some arcane reason.

  • (cs) in reply to Kevin
    Kevin:
    AS/400s are actually kind of nice. They are pretty stable, we have a custom POS written in RPG.

    An RPG? Cool...

    Customer> claim 10 Widgets Inventory Orc scowls, ready to attack. Customer> swing "AMEX of Purchasing" Inventory Orc parries with "Buckler of Security Code" Customer> swing "Dagger of Codes" You hit the Inventory Orc for (1d3): 3 points of damage! Inventory Orc is dead! Shipping Troll scowls, ready to attack...

    Oh, sorry, you meant programmed IN RPG...

  • (cs) in reply to Sunnyboy
    Sunnyboy:
    My only comment is "yea, and....?"

    So the newly minted comp-sci type encountered the real world.

    How about a good story for a change?

    Just about any story that appears here seems likely to be about someone's problematic encounter with "the real world".

    Still, if you'd like a "good" story, they could just make something up next time. I bet that sort of behavior would go over really well with this crowd.

  • (cs) in reply to chron3
    chron3:
    Kevin:
    AS/400s are actually kind of nice. They are pretty stable, we have a custom POS written in RPG.

    An RPG? Cool...

    Customer> claim 10 Widgets Inventory Orc scowls, ready to attack. Customer> swing "AMEX of Purchasing" Inventory Orc parries with "Buckler of Security Code" Customer> swing "Dagger of Codes" You hit the Inventory Orc for (1d3): 3 points of damage! Inventory Orc is dead! Shipping Troll scowls, ready to attack...

    Oh, sorry, you meant programmed IN RPG...

    Oh, you mean Role Playing Game. My first thought was Rocket Propelled Grenade. Of course we all know what POS stands for.

  • (cs)
    Now as you may know, COBOL doesn't any have Boolean types; that means most systems had a standard of using a single character string which can be set to "Y" or "N".

    Ahem. 88 level.

    Seems kids today can't be bothered to know what you're talking about before complaining about it.

  • davee123 (unregistered) in reply to The Corrector

    False-True-False-Yes?

    DaveE

  • Another Andrew (unregistered)

    Now as you may know, COBOL doesn't any have Boolean types;

    Yes, but it has "88"s, which are a way of specifying values that satisfy boolean-type conditions, so they could have used code like: 01 INVALID-BATCH-OPERAND PIC X(1). 88 INVALID-BATCH-OPERAND-FALSE VALUES "F", "N", "0". 88 INVALID-BATCH-OPERAND-TRUE VALUES "T", "Y", "1".

    (or something - it's a looooooong time since I used COBOL.)

    Still funny though, especially with the double negative

    Andrew (younger than COBOL, but older than CICS and VSAM)

  • (cs) in reply to da Doctah
    da Doctah:
    Now as you may know, COBOL doesn't any have Boolean types; that means most systems had a standard of using a single character string which can be set to "Y" or "N".

    Ahem. 88 level.

    Seems kids today can't be bothered to know what you're talking about before complaining about it.

    TRWTF is feeling a wave of pride after correcting someone's mistaken claim about a dead language.

    Kidding, kidding...

  • MF/400 (unregistered)
    Alex Papadimoulis:
    At least I get to work on a mainframe, he told himself. That is, until he learned they were no longer room-sized behemoths staffed by operators wearing cat-eye glasses and bouffant hairdos. It was nothing more than a big ole box called an AS/400.

    I once got a ruddy good telling off for referring to an AS/400 as a "Mainframe". I was told, in no uncertain terms, that my life would soon be at risk unless I started using the term "Mid-Range Computer". Then I read this post. Now I don't know what to think.

  • SmittyBoy (unregistered) in reply to Bobbo

    Duh. That's called fixed point arithmetics. Back to school for you, lad !

  • SmittyBoy (unregistered) in reply to Bobbo

    Duh. That's called fixed point arithmetics. Back to school for you, lad !

  • SomeoneElse (unregistered) in reply to Another Andrew
    Another Andrew :
    > Now as you may know, COBOL doesn't any have Boolean types;

    Yes, but it has "88"s, which are a way of specifying values that satisfy boolean-type conditions, so they could have used code like: 01 INVALID-BATCH-OPERAND PIC X(1). 88 INVALID-BATCH-OPERAND-FALSE VALUES "F", "N", "0". 88 INVALID-BATCH-OPERAND-TRUE VALUES "T", "Y", "1".

    Of course, this won't exactly work on the code in the story, since "N" stands for No sometimes, but Not False other times.

  • Oneway (unregistered) in reply to Sunnyboy
    Sunnyboy:
    My only comment is "yea, and....?"
    No it isn't.
    Sunnyboy:
    So the newly minted comp-sci type encountered the real world.

    How about a good story for a change?

    -S

    See?

  • (cs) in reply to Bobbo
    Bobbo:
    I once worked with an in-house language which didn't have the ability to represent decimal points. So all such numbers were multiplied up by 100 or 10000 to retain the .00 or .0000 precision, then passed around/stored as needed, then divided back down for display.

    Genius.

    That's not a WTF. How else are you supposed to represent decimal numbers in a fixed-point representation?

  • Matt Westwood (unregistered)

    I have to share the "saysTrue" and "saysFalse" methods we wrote, which translated the multifarious ways of expressing affirmation and negation that had evolved in our various assorted "boolean valued" system environment properties as defined in our database schemas.

    They effectively boil down to:

    saysTrue: if uppercase of the first character is T or Y, return True, otherwise (which includes null or empty string) return False.

    saysFalse: if uppercase of the first character is F or N, return True, otherwise (which includes null or empty string) return False.

    Yes, the latter method gives the expected answer to "Does this string represent False or No?"

    Well it works for us, and saves a lot of repetitive mucking about.

  • (cs) in reply to da Doctah
    da Doctah:
    Now as you may know, COBOL doesn't any have Boolean types; that means most systems had a standard of using a single character string which can be set to "Y" or "N".

    Ahem. 88 level.

    Seems kids today can't be bothered to know what you're talking about before complaining about it.

    That is what I was thinking

    modern COBOL does have boolean values, but it works very differently 05 some-flag pic x(01) value spaces. 88 true-value value 'x'.

    set true-value to true . . some code . if true-value do something end-if

    there is no representation of false, there is only a true

    Anyway TRWTF is running COBOL on an AS400, it is usually a RPG machine.

    The other RWTF (TORWTF??) is calling an AS400 a mainframe.

    I will neither confirm nor deny any knowledge of RPG

  • Bob (unregistered) in reply to da Doctah
    da Doctah:
    Now as you may know, COBOL doesn't any have Boolean types; that means most systems had a standard of using a single character string which can be set to "Y" or "N".

    Ahem. 88 level.

    Seems kids today can't be bothered to know what you're talking about before complaining about it.

    Beat me to it. That's some horrible COBOL code but it's the programmer's fault, not the language's. Also, doubt he was working on an AS400. CICS and VSAM are S390 technologies. Maybe they were running zOS on it. Sick bunnies.

    Also, some people run redundant systems in redundant data centres and do clever data sync'ing between them but intelligent people just run AS400s.

  • vereor (unregistered) in reply to MF/400
    MF/400:
    Alex Papadimoulis:
    At least I get to work on a mainframe, he told himself. That is, until he learned they were no longer room-sized behemoths staffed by operators wearing cat-eye glasses and bouffant hairdos. It was nothing more than a big ole box called an AS/400.

    I once got a ruddy good telling off for referring to an AS/400 as a "Mainframe". I was told, in no uncertain terms, that my life would soon be at risk unless I started using the term "Mid-Range Computer". Then I read this post. Now I don't know what to think.

    When I first learned about an AS/400, they were called mini-mainframes.

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to frits
    frits:
    Oh, you mean Role Playing Game. My first thought was Rocket Propelled Grenade. Of course we all know what POS stands for.

    My first thought too. Must be something to do with the mood I'm in on a Monday morning. Sounds like it'd be a good idea to RPG this system.

  • n_slash_a (unregistered) in reply to chron3
    chron3:
    Kevin:
    AS/400s are actually kind of nice. They are pretty stable, we have a custom POS written in RPG.

    An RPG? Cool...

    Customer> claim 10 Widgets Inventory Orc scowls, ready to attack. Customer> swing "AMEX of Purchasing" Inventory Orc parries with "Buckler of Security Code" Customer> swing "Dagger of Codes" You hit the Inventory Orc for (1d3): 3 points of damage! Inventory Orc is dead! Shipping Troll scowls, ready to attack...

    Oh, sorry, you meant programmed IN RPG...

    +1

  • (cs) in reply to boog
    boog:
    TRWTF is feeling a wave of pride after correcting someone's mistaken claim about a dead language.

    Not a dead language, it is still probably the most important language around (it is what generates my paychecks, and probably yours also).

  • null (unregistered)

    CICS is the same age as Unix.

  • (cs) in reply to chron3
    chron3:
    An RPG? Cool...

    Customer> claim 10 Widgets Inventory Orc scowls, ready to attack. Customer> swing "AMEX of Purchasing" Inventory Orc parries with "Buckler of Security Code" Customer> swing "Dagger of Codes" You hit the Inventory Orc for (1d3): 3 points of damage! Inventory Orc is dead! Shipping Troll scowls, ready to attack...

    Oh, sorry, you meant programmed IN RPG...

    10 points to anyone who writes the above sequence of events in RPG.

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