Duncan P wrote:For people who don't code, or won't code, then
then... they should probably find an alternative vocation since administering a data system (well) necessarily involves some understanding of how the data moves through that system. Failure to understand that will usually at some point or other result in a metaphorical train wreck of numbers which were not processed in the way that they were expected to be processed. If their excuse was "But I didn't understand what the code was doing!" then I'm not sure that their boss would need to be Donald Trump for them to be hearing those two magical words.
Of course this problem can be avoided by them understanding the code that the wizard generates, in which case they're covered.
But then, if they can understand the code that the wizard generates, then they may as well write it themselves and not be constrained by the limits of the wizard.
This does not fit with the IBM mindset of "wrap everything in slow moving GUIness until the user can barely move in any direction other than the one that it was assumed that they would in the development studio" (anything written in Java and released in 10.1, I'm looking at you with simmering malevolence), but it still reflects one of the core objections that I have to the wizard.
Duncan P wrote:the wizard is worth understanding
Understanding indeed. Another of my objections is that the wizard is not, IMHO, particularly user friendly and you have to put in a reasonable amount of effort into understanding what each of the dialogs, drop downs and options is
supposed to be doing, what it
does do, and what it (naturally)
can't do so that you aren't buried in endless "nuh-uh" dialogs. Contrary to conventional wisdom the mere fact that something is "graphical" does not automatically make it "intuitive".
It therefore takes an investment of time to understand how it works. And if time is going to be invested in learning something anyway, would it be better used:
(a) To understand how to do whatever you want to within the limits of the tool; or
(b) Merely to understand how to make the user interface to the tool get you to where it tells you you can get to?
My feeling is that (a) is the preferable option. It's not like TI is a particularly difficult language to learn; the expression "feature rich" does not come to mind.
Array variables?
Nope, just some kludgy if ingenious workarounds.
Loops?
One, count them, one kind (and a non-auto-incrementing one at that; find me the person who has never once forgotten to increment the counter).
Ability to regulate chore scheduling within TI?
Nope.
Built in e-mailing capability?
Hmmm...
Etc, etc...
It's a (very) basic scripting language, and users who are in an administrative role at least (who are generally not slack jawed idiots who can do nothing more than point and click and swoosh on pretty icons) don't need to be Alan Turing to be able to figure it out.
Duncan P wrote:and using. It is actually very capable. There are few structural requirements that it can't cope with. The only caveat is that it creates stuff effectively but doesn't necessarily change existing stuff so reliably. Granted, you (Alan) may not like the code it generates but if instead you're one of those that doesn't code you're not going to know the difference.
I have less of an objection to the code as such, more of an objection to the limitations of the code that CAN be generated. (And, as noted above, the time that it takes to get to that code via a GUI click-fest in the first place.) TI is supposed to be an ETL tool and being limited to the wizard places limits on how much "T" can be done there.
But speaking of the code, I do agree that more details about the original problem would be useful and it would also be useful to see the code that has been generated on the Advanced tabs so that we can see exactly what the Wizard is trying to do and how it does or doesn't match your expectations.