Comment by peteradio | Hacker News Reader

Comment by peteradio | Hacker News Reader

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Lol, instead of one developer now you need two developers one who fucks with spread sheets and one who jiggers the shitty tool to make the web app.

See basically "no dev needed", perfect for old timers who can't code. Or not.

private void placeAnOrder() { listSheet.unprotect(""); Range costCell = spreadsheet.getRangeByName(exchangeSheet.getSheetId(), COST_CELL); if (!costCell.toString().isEmpty()) { Double cost = costCell.getRangeValue().getCellValue().getDoubleValue(); if (cost > 0) { Double amount = spreadsheet.getRangeByName(exchangeSheet.getSheetId(), "amount").getRangeValue().getCellValue().getDoubleValue(); Range orderTable1stRow = spreadsheet.getRange(BOOK_NAME, listSheet.getSheetId(), "C6:G6"); orderTable1stRow.getEntireRow().insert(Range.InsertShiftDirection.ShiftDown, Range.InsertFormatOrigin.RightOrBelow); orderTable1stRow.setValues(DateUtil.getExcelDate(new Date()), cost, destinationCurrency, destinationRate, amount); } } listSheet.protect(PROTECTION); }

Can you please not be snarky in HN comments? You have a good point here, but please follow the site guidelines.

Ya I'll delete it if I can.

It was a snarky comment, but also amusing.

I thought it was clear in my original comment that it would require more than one developer before - one for the BI process and at least one for the data-entry component. Given that most BI teams don't have a web developer, that also spreads the process over multiple teams, which can slow down maintenence. And I'm not sure why you think it'd take a whole other developer to manage this tool. BI developers are used to picking up new tools and languages (my BI job requires that I know how to use SQL, python, MDX, and C#, and numerous third-party applications).

And when I'm referring to "old timers", I'm referring to users, not the developers. Why would a user need to understand that snippet? Are we even talking about the same thing?

I can see exactly what that code is doing on a first read. It's pretty procedural. I don't like the range reference.

> "C6:G6"

I think the bigger problem is it's not going to be a developer maintaining this. It's going to be a pretty literate VBA user and nothing will go wrong. Inevitably they will move on and pass over the code, the 'user application' to someone who will feel reassured they can read it too, but then when it comes time to make a change, they won't be able to. And then it'll be passed over again and become a black box.

A developer (if there's funding) will not like picking up something undocumented, then it becomes a project (less funding). The process, a magical black box that may or may not have stopped working also loses documentation. Governance is lost. Particularly but not exclusively in financial applications, potential for misuse and loss, either accidentally or fraudulently, has been introduced.

So, the above looks (mainly) OK to me. But only because I know to insist on maintaining a manual backup or otherwise maintaining knowledge of how the black box works.

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