DVLA Double Dipping

GunJack

facade said:

I didn't write the programme, but how hard would it really have been to make the tax liability start from the first of the next month if the vehicle is currently taxed......

potentially very difficult, especially when the program is written in an older programming language that has very few (expensive) programmers left......

Note:- for those younger readers, a "programmer" is what would in newspeak be called a "coder"..... why on earth they had to change the title I don't know, could it be because coder is easier to spell????

[Deleted User]

GunJack said:

facade said:

I didn't write the programme, but how hard would it really have been to make the tax liability start from the first of the next month if the vehicle is currently taxed......

potentially very difficult, especially when the program is written in an older programming language that has very few (expensive) programmers left......

Note:- for those younger readers, a "programmer" is what would in newspeak be called a "coder"..... why on earth they had to change the title I don't know, could it be because coder is easier to spell????

While a programmer simply has to think and build a logical framework of decisions for the application, a coder has to implement that logic with a particular programming language in a standard, efficient way.

unforeseen

Deleted_User said:

GunJack said:

facade said:

I didn't write the programme, but how hard would it really have been to make the tax liability start from the first of the next month if the vehicle is currently taxed......

potentially very difficult, especially when the program is written in an older programming language that has very few (expensive) programmers left......

Note:- for those younger readers, a "programmer" is what would in newspeak be called a "coder"..... why on earth they had to change the title I don't know, could it be because coder is easier to spell????

While a programmer simply has to think and build a logical framework of decisions for the application, a coder has to implement that logic with a particular programming language in a standard, efficient way.

And programmers used to do both of those tasks and in most cases still do. It wasn't split as you imagine. 
Back in the 60/70s the only coders I knew where the ones that took the program written by the programmers and transferred it to punch cards or paper tape ready for inputting into the mainframe. 

RogerBareford

facade said:

marlot said:

It's not because of some evil reason.  It's because behind the pretty web forms, the systems at DVLA are old mainframe programmes.  They were designed when tax carried over from owner to owner.  When the new rules were devised, it was too hard to convert the old mainframe systems from monthly to daily.

It was always the case that if you cashed in a tax disk, you only got back complete months.  But it didn't use to matter, as you simply 'sold' the tax disk with the car.

Hanlon's razor    I'm not so sure, these people are neither stupid nor incompetent- even though they try to project that impression .

I didn't write the programme, but how hard would it really have been to make the tax liability start from the first of the next month if the vehicle is currently taxed......

Why would the goverment want to spend money to make a change that would result in them getting less money in tax?