I like to make use of the self-documenting abilities of the process flow window and to get the most out of EG's abilities to help. I do not care to write hundreds of lines of code if I can point and click and it is done. So, here are my usual rules:
1. Use the point & click features to get me as far as I can go with it. This automatically generates the nodes and the arrows in the process flow window that will be modified when I change the point & click options.
2. Check the code generated by the P&C system to see if there are any changes I want to make. If so, use the insert code option if possible. If not, add as code template and replace the P&C node in the flow with the code node.
3. When necessary, write my own code, but break it into pieces and connect with arrows so that the process flow is understandable.
I also have a few Utilities.egp files where the first process flow tab contains a number of pre-written code icons that already have the appropriate parameters (prompts) attached. I start my work on a clean tab and copy & paste the code icons fromthe first tab into the other tabs for the project as needed. For example, I have one utilities.egp file for use whenever I have to use the mainframe with SAS/Connect. Whenever I start a new projectwith the mainframe involved, I open up my utilities.egp and immediatly do a "save as" and save it with the new project name. Then, I am ready to go and all of my common mainframe code needs are ready to go, including the one that, when I need to access a tape, it ftp's my batch program to the mainframe and emails me back my log and output.
I think that the new template feature in EG4.2 will help us modernize this approach.
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