[REBOL] Re: Browsers ,vim Vs. Emacs etc....
From: joel:neely:fedex at: 17-Mar-2002 14:59
Hi, Petr,
Petr Krenzelok wrote:
> Hmm, what is the problem? :-) I did some work here. We use CICS
> systems in our company (till we move fully to SAP R3). Guys
> prepare download/job for us... The record has fixed length
> field structure and that is important...
>
> Well, I either don't understand the problem correctly, or I just
> can find out, why to call such trivial task being an AI issue :-)
>
I wasn't thinking about the cases when I'm handed a fixed-record
data file with documentation of the field layouts, nor the cases
in which someone else has done the work to format/download the
data for me. (I wish life were always that simple...)
I'm thinking of those times when I've had the fun of figuring out
the data layout for myself after being handed a file without the
necessary documentation, for a variety of reasons:
- there's no documentation nor source code for the creation of
the file,
- it was data extracted from a proprietary package from a defunct
vendor,
- the file was custom-constructed by someone who has since left
the company, the city, the country, and (possibly) this earth;
- etc...
The reason I refer to the task as AI-like is that a human being,
especially one who knows the problem domain, can often make good
guesses/inferences about field positions/locations based on such
things as common encoded data, familiar items (e.g. dates, times,
employee or account numbers, monetary figures, etc.) However,
such inferences/guesses are often context sensitive and subject
to change as more data become available.
-jn-
--
; Joel Neely joeldotneelyatfedexdotcom
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