MUMPS is modern

NextGov has an article that implies that the VA and DOD should compile MUMPS code to Java code.

Before we get into this discussion I would like to point out the fundamental flaw with implying that MUMPS is not a modern system. People who say things like this are usually ignorant, arrogant, biased or a healthy mix of all three. MUMPS engines have evolved and improved just like other systems that were developed in the same time frame. No one would consider calling C, (which powers the iPhone as Objective C) SQL, (which underlies ORACLE, and MySQL) or Unix (which is the design paradigm for Linux) antiquated. Unless you can detail exactly what ‘modern things’ MUMPS cannot do you have no business calling it old or implying that it is not modern.

Doing so merely serves to show that you are purveyor of second-hand technical knowledge. If you do not like MUMPS and have some legitimate reasons to avoid it, please take a page from David Uhlmans playbook:

I do not in any way want to offer
a general commentary on why some people want to use MUMPS or don’t
want to, or X language is better than Y, I am not looking to instigate
a flame war or really say that what we are doing is a better or worse
approach from a technical standpoint than anything else. It is the
right approach for us.

There are good reasons to get away from MUMPS, and there are good reasons to stay with MUMPS. Please do not use propaganda to make it seem like it is obvious in either direction.

Now… on to the idea of compiling MUMPS:

That is a seriously problematic idea. But it is hardly original at this stage. This is similar to the strategy that ClearHealth Inc. is following with WebVistA. ClearHealth has described the WebVistA technology strategy here and discussed it briefly on Hardhats. However, the basic strategy that I have taken away from talking directly to David Uhlman is that they compile MUMPS to C code, and then the C code to PHP modules, which they then use to build a web interface to VistA.

This much better than the idea of compiling to Java, because:

• It works now. Not after 2 years and millions of dollars.
• It jumps all the way to a web-environment.

But there is one basic problems with any ‘compile MUMPS’ technical strategy.

It is not clear where or how you edit the code.

If you edit in MUMPS then, you are not really getting away from MUMPS at all. Further the compile times for ‘all of VistA’  take days or weeks. That does not work for the write, compile, test, debug, write… software development method. But the C code that results is essentially just a pre-cursor to machine code. You might as well just modify the assembly code directly. You cannot really edit at the PHP level, because you are dealing with binaries at that point. But it is even more problematic that you could code modifications in MUMPS -and- C, but what would that mean? In short, this seems like a recipe for unmaintainable code.

Be assured, ‘migrating’ or ‘converting’ from MUMPS to anything will result in a lose of meaning. The Java compile methods that are mentioned in the NextGov article are just as problematic as the ones ClearHealth is using with WebVistA, and for the same reasons.

This does not mean that the compilation method will not work. But it does mean that we should be dubious about any strategy that suggests this method until they have been proven to work. At least David Uhlman is basically saying, ‘hey look, this seems to be working for me, let me get the kinks out and I will show you’, rather than the arrogant position of: MUMPS is not modern, I have done this in the lab, please give me many millions of dollars and several years and I will be able to change this all to unreadable and unmaintanable Java. Please. It is hard to imagine how little I think of this idea. If this happens to be an idea that you support…. I hereby fart in your general direction.

-FT