>That isn't the only place data disappears though. I tend to blame the problem on editing in arrays--probably because I never use them.
One other thing I saw once where there was no solid naming convention / structure throughout the app is that array's were reference parameters under the name of other arrays in the program. Depending on what was on the stack 5 or 6 levels up, different arrays were populated/massaged by the same function. Public flogging should be reinstated. But from the things you wrote in another post, this doesn't seem to be the problem.

>Everything is in a program---somewhere--that is never called directly (as in by name.) The less I have to modify it the better I feel.
&MyNextProgram as a *Standard* ? If so, time for some technical commentary: Uuugh!


>I think you've made a good poinit Thomas. I would really like to modify the code gradually--charging them for it a bit at a time. I've actually been looking for a way to do that. But, the thing I really want to get rid of first and foremost is the arrays!

I've done this a few times, but the ugly cases mostly were not too bad designs from the original developer maintained to death my programmers not understanding the base idea - your case sounds much worse. Guessing without any knowlegde of your app I'ld probably create a class based adapter (easy to enhance/specialize for sub/supersets of data needed to access) automating the task to map from array to your targeted data value storage and back. Isolate parts, get that working and go step by step. At the very end remap your adapter from array to your backend and celebrate the killing of the arrays. But DON'T start unless you have a clear vision (some peple need written specs) *and* got long term "go ahead".

my 0.02 EUR

thomas