• (cs) in reply to Sidnicious
    Sidnicious:
    Old Skool:
    Am I the only one who wishes libraries still used tn3270's and plain-text catalogs? I hate web-based library catalogs.

    Raises hand. Dumb terminals were simple, fun, useful, and pretty much couldn't fuck up, unlike the cheap-ass dell b0xen that my library's using now.

    I want a revival some day.

    Same here. Ironically, the web based system my library uses is a functional clone of the dumb-terminal system, but it's clunkier.

  • (cs) in reply to Ken
    Ken:
    Old Skool:
    Am I the only one who wishes libraries still used tn3270's and plain-text catalogs? I hate web-based library catalogs.
    Hmm... http://www.westchesterlibraries.org/text.html

    Unfortunately, they don't tell you what the login is for the telnet link.

    It's a SunOS box. Do you really need to know the login?

    (Actually, the version of SunOS it's running is - amusingly - too outdated to be vulnerable to the infamous telnet security hole.)

  • (cs) in reply to Sidnicious
    Sidnicious:
    Dumb terminals were simple, fun, useful, and pretty much couldn't fuck up

    Fun?

  • Soviut (unregistered)

    I get it, the WTF is that people still have to check out physical paper books at a library!

    captcha: vern...know wadda' mean, vern?

  • R. P. (unregistered)

    What I find more hilarious about this than anything else......

    "Put it on a wooden table, take a picture...."

  • (cs)

    PCReservation's problems are due to a few things. One, you can change lots and lots of their prompts to whatever you want, so someone added the phone number thing. Secondly, do to the shoddy error handling (especially in LPT:One, damnation...) and some funny ideas about what "agile" development is, their developers probably don't have any better idea what prompts go where than the customers do.

    As for this, if you don't require pin numbers but do allow session locking, then it does show a randomly generated pin as plaintext, which you will need to remember. They just don't change the top prompt if you supply your own.

  • Hognoxious (unregistered) in reply to rumpelstiltskin
    rumpelstiltskin:
    How hard could it be to catalog all 7 books in Georgia?
    The tricky part is tracking whether they've been coloured-in.
  • (cs) in reply to KattMan
    AbbydonKrafts: wbrianwhite: ASP/VBScript is loosely typed so there is no error until you call FormatCurrency. So, absolutely none of the On Error Goto discussion is relevant as ASP/VBScript doesn't support that. Never tried it, have you? ;-) 
    It is there. I use it for logging detailed errors and handling them gracefully.
    No he hasn't. Makes me wonder, does he make a living out of programming Jury duty attendance letters?

    You are both wrong. What's going on here? ASP only supports On Error Resume Next with an inline error handling statement after anything that could go wrong: If err.number <> 0 then X. It does not support On Error Goto FunctionName, it only supports On Error Goto 0 which turns error handling off and is not a real goto statement. The other thing it supports is setting up a custom 500;100 error handling page, and having code there to grab details from the ASPError object, but that is completely unrelated to On Error Goto FunctionName. What is it that you two are thinking of? Examples please.

  • (cs) in reply to John Smallberries
    John Smallberries:
    PACE:
    John Smallberries:
    You should really try thinking before typing.
    wbrianwhite:
    Even if the error source weren't listed, VB6 is strongly typed to prevent you passing non-currency values to FormatCurrency in the first place...
    Ever heard of the Variant data type?
    wbrianwhite:
    ASP/VBScript is loosely typed so there is no error until you call FormatCurrency.
    And C++ and C# have some magic way to detect and error (at runtime) before executing a function?
    wbrianwhite:
    So, absolutely none of the On Error Goto discussion is relevant as ASP/VBScript doesn't support that.
    And the best for last! Of course VBScript supports it. Works well, if somewhat inelegantly.

    btw, that "thinking before typing" idea does wonders for your code too.

    So you're comparing "On Error Resume Next" and "On Error Goto 0" in VBScript to the way it's supported in VB6?? Simply turning error reporting off is not what I'd call a mechanism like Try/Catch...

    No, of course not. Where TF did I mention VB6? The idiot I'm qoting mentioned it, but I'm trying to get this back in context of VBScript (the language used, btw).

    Listen, we all agree VBS error handling sux. That said, you still need to use what it gives you. The canonical way is:

    On Error Resume Next 'don't break on errors
TrySomethingRisky()
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
  ReportError(Err)
  Err.Clear
End If
On Error Goto 0  'break on errors

    Notice, it's not simply "turning off error reporting". It's bypassing the the system's error reporting and checking with your own code. Clearly, this is clunky and suboptimal but you still have to use what the language provides. The error mode is procedure-local (not global), so intelligent use of Subs and Functions makes this easier.

    You proved my point. That is NOT On Error Goto FunctionName which is what people were typing as sample VB6 code to handle this. Since it's not VB6, you cannot type On Error Goto MyJuryLetterErrorHandler or any such.

    Did you NOTICE this code that I was responding to?

    The VB6 way: On Error Goto ErrorCatch

    That is fine in VB6. It is IMPOSSIBLE in ASP. Which is why you should read what you're responding to before typing a response.

    Also.... setting a currency variable to a variant - why? I guess I was assuming a certain level of competence that you would use a currency data type if you were in a language that supported it. But assuming you did, you would get the error at variable assignment, not when you called the formatting function which is what I stated, and has nothing to do with VB vs. C++ vs. C#, but much to do with any of those versus VBScript.

  • Kuba (unregistered) in reply to Sgt. Preston
    Sgt. Preston:
    Old Skool:
    Am I the only one who wishes libraries still used tn3270's and plain-text catalogs? I hate web-based library catalogs.
    It was much better when all you had to do was ask the librarian who knew where every scroll was stored.

    Anecdotal evidence: The terminal-type interface is way quicker for me than the web-based interfaces. I've timed myself against myself, and myself against other students using the library (looking over their shoulder). I'm about 5 times quicker, on average, to look up a title, using the terminal. Similar results for myself vs. myself as for myself vs. others. I'm only including others who show signs of being computer literate. The computer newbies take up to 30 times more, and often don't succeed even if the title they look for exists.

  • Tom (unregistered) in reply to Pat

    i actually met the guy at a book signing here in Launceston, Tasmania. He's very short with a light voice. Not that i have anything against short people, they are quite useful when stacked correctly.

    The old card system catalogue is much better. However a combination of computer and librarian is good when it works properly and a functional controlled vocabulary is used instead of some cack-handed one.

    signed

    ex-Alexandria librarian (the one that got burned down a while back)

  • PureMonopoly (unregistered)

    lol =D

  • (cs)

    What I think is The Real WTF (tm), which nobody has mentioned so far, is the fact that an ASP web application is in charge of preparing and printing (pressumably automatically) form letters to be sent by postal mail.

    Do they have a scheduled job that calls iexplod^Hrer.exe with the URL to the ASP page?

    Amazing!

     -dZ.
  • LibraryIT (unregistered) in reply to Kemp

    The display of the PC Reservation screens and the choice of PIN is configurable by the library. Other choices and wording are possible. Many libraries require the user to choose a PIN other than his phone number for this reason. In some cases, advance reservations can be placed and this screen states the time and the PC that have been reserved. All software can be improved. This app has relieved library staff members from lots of complicated record and time keeping to give more personal service in other areas and still offer free Internet access to the public.

  • sarika bele (unregistered) in reply to poochner

    i can't understand why c# is called as c sharp and not c hash?

  • ELIZA (unregistered) in reply to Control_Alt_Kaboom
    Control_Alt_Kaboom:
    Grimoire:
    Pat:
    ben:
    Just don't call him a monkey.
    /* snipped one return */ winner!...even if nobody else got it :)
    Oook!
    /* snipped one return */ May you live in interesting times.
    Seize the throat.
  • Amtep (unregistered) in reply to sarika bele
    sarika bele:
    i can't understand why c# is called as c sharp and not c hash?
    Where do you get c hash? It's clearly c octothorpe.

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