jfr@locus.com (Jon Rosen) (05/18/91)
In article <88371@mbf.UUCP> janine@mbf.UUCP (Janine Rivas) writes: >I have just landed a consulting position, helping the owner of a small >pharmacutical distributor straighten out the mess his software vendor >has left him with. My first task is to figure out what language his >source is written in. <Stuff deleted here...> The >filenames all end with the suffix .t, and the keywords in the source >are seperated by commas instead of spaces. The text is in all upper-case, >with mostly two-character variable names... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ SOUNDS LIKE BASIC TO ME :-) :-) :-) Sorry, I couldn't resist! PS - Has this guy considered filing a lawsuit? I am appalled at the way software vendors/consultants/etc treat clients in situations like this (not meaning Janine but the original vendor) by dropping them and them refusing to give out information. This borders on criminal and certainly gives those of us who value our reputations and ethics a very bad name. Jon Rosen
chap@art-sy.detroit.mi.us (j chapman flack) (05/25/91)
Yow! Janine, you must have made a *very* good impression to land a client who had just been through an experience like that. Congratulations. The outfit that did the system--did they offer it as an off-the-shelf package (_caveat emptor_) or did they develop it for the client? I suppose if it was clearly understood to be a package, with no source or modification rights for the client, then I'd have to concede they were within their rights to deliver it in a mystery language, undocumented, and encrypted, if they really wanted to. Otherwise, though, I'd see red. Have they ever seen the ACM or ICCP codes of conduct? I don't recognize the 4GL, but my $0.02 on the encrypted menus: instead of hacking the menu system, just run it with process accounting on and check the log to see what it ran. If Xenix includes process accounting. If Xenix doesn't include process accounting, you could take everything obviously related to the menu system over to an SCO UNIX system and run it with system-call auditing enabled--the log will contain failed exec()s for anything it tried to run. Good luck! -- Chap Flack Their tanks will rust. Our songs will last. chap@art-sy.detroit.mi.us -MIKHS 0EODWPAKHS Nothing I say represents Appropriate Roles for Technology unless I say it does.