Week 14, 2000 ,Svenson

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03-04 to 09-04

MM-lxxxxiv     Monday

2000-04-03

While it remained dry and warm it was considerably less sunny. Lots of rain that has fallen the last week decided to lift off again. I mean we got lots of mist and a generally hazy day.

Up to now I have been documenting the sales module piece wise. That every time I had to solve a bug or answer a question I wrote (typed) a little bit of documentation. The result is that I now have a few megabytes of small HTML files but no coherence. Theo is doing the new specifications in MS Word but that again are only a few unlinked pieces.
I got Ronny so far that he also started to put down some documentation on new things in TeleSales. He has been the sole developer for about a year now and he knows almost everything so he didn't see any need for documentation. He is also an expert in Progress so he doesn't need any source-comments. Just waste of space in his opinion. Only he is starting to lose the grand picture lately. And with the people from Progress building the proof of concept for the TOS application he noticed that. TOS should provided a subset of the TeleSales functions over a web interface and he had to explain every single bit to the developer because nothing is documented. He now understands the need for documentation, he just doesn't like it so he will not do anything more than strictly necessary. Which is a start.
I started to setup a structure where all those pieces can be hooked in. At the moment it is a bit like the trees outside, lots of branches and twigs but no leaves. But sure as the seasons turn the leaves will sprout. In A few months time I will have to start pruning.
With care and attention I will get a harvest by next year :-)

And I prepared to solve another problem report. I just need the answer from one person before I can start coding.

Now that the parquet is done my brother came around to shift the furniture back. And forth, And up and down. And of course everything must be cleaned before it is placed back.

Nah, just after I wrote that the day was dry I go to the attic to be greeted by the sound of heavy rain. Pf, try to get some cooperation from above.

MM-lxxxxv     Tuesday

2000-04-04

It is just a tad cooler than yesterday (6°C) and a little less hazy. In the after noon some threatening patches of cloud pass harmlessly by. Driving home I enjoy the rare sight of a thunderstorm rather close by while remaining dry and in the sun, needing glasses actually. Halfway home I get another thunderstorm, this time straight above :-(

Ronny is on holiday for two days so we get a TeleSales problem. It is possible (should be..) to release an order from two places, either from the order selection screen or from the order entry screen. The validation routines however are the same (there is only one). Of course one of the methods doesn't work. The strange thing is that all the calls seem to be made (they are logged anyway) but the order doesn't change status.
Sigh. Spending time while I don't think I can solve it.

I did get some more documentation done but not as much as I had hoped for. Sounds familiar to somebody?

MM-lxxxxvi     Wednesday

2000-04-05

It is cooler, 4°C but not close to freezing as predicted (ground frost). It is dry when I get but when I drive off, half an hour later it starts to drizzle. Until I get in Venlo. The rest of the day is dry if not bright.
Bah, I think I have seen enough drizzle this year to last me some decades.

After struggling with the AS/400 server jobs and the validation programs for TeleSales I find the actual problem. Records to be validated must get a status code of 'VAL'. In one situation they are passed correct, in the other situation the status remains 'HLD'. The problem in finding this is that I couldn't get the debugger to work on the program. Either something with the job or with the program object. Another weird thing was that, when using the RPG dump statement in the program I did get a dump but the system program producing the dump caused a decimal-data (mch1202) error.
That whole episode took the best part of the morning. And the problem is not in the AS/400 programs so Ronny has to solve it (but he is still on holiday). Of course I find the problem a few hours after the mailing of the CD so we now have a product on the way to the clients with a known bug.. One that should have been found during testing. Just lucky that we have a monopoly (all our 'clients' are direct subsidiaries, the only choice they have is use our programs or use nothing. As TeleSales provides a subset of the OMSI-3 module 'use nothing' is a real option ).

I did the file change for the posting to OFI interface and started on the programming. Basically some functions must be transferred from one program to an other. And that other program must be converted from RPG/400 to RPGiv. That is largely an automatic process but while doing it I strip all the death code form it.

And for the first time in a few weeks I got round to reading all the daynotes.

MM-lxxxxvii     Thursday

2000-04-06

Oeps, morning frost (-2C) with ice on the windshield. Of course this is due to clear skies and they stay that way throughout the bright sunny day. That is spring, perfect porch weather, birds are singing, squirrels are courting, ... ai!

Ronny is back but before he can tackle the order-validation problem he has to sort out a problem with RoundTable (that is the version management tool used for TeleSales). Somehow the database got corrupted and an restore from backup looks like the only option left.
In the early afternoon he solves the validation problem in version-9 (ocs 7.9). I proposed to solve it only in v9 and not in v8 as well.

About an hour later a discussion with Theo reaches the question of solving problems in v8 and/or v9. Of course Theo wants to solve all problems in both versions and keep new functions in v9 only.
That is probably what we will do in the end but my point is that if all problems are solved in v8 and there are no compelling innovations in v9 there is no incentive to pull OpCos towards the new version. Whenever they want something new they will claim it is a bug or connect it to a bug to get it solved in v8. That way new functions get introduced in the old version and in the end the new version is pushed forward (like OCS 7.7 which was ultimately never released, jumping from 7.6 to 7.8).

For OMSI-3 I finished the OFI-interface adaptation, testing included. I think there will be a problem for OFI later in the process. I asked John and he said there wouldn't be one but I doubt it. The problem is a data-format issue. Two new fields contain numeric data in packed format (two digits per byte, ex 374 decimal becomes X'374D' ) while the same fields on the OFI side are in character format (one digit per byte, ex 374 becomes X'3D7D4D'). We will see.

As most of the discussion about the Microsoft trial result are now winding down (often degenerating into a kind of verbal mud-wrestling) I wan to add an observation of my own. Well, a question really. Why did the DoJ go after Microsoft like it did?
Why isn't it going after Boeing? What is the share of Boeing in the market of airliners? 80%? 90%? Does it play 'nice' in its market? The only reason I see is that the only competition comes from outside the US. Airbus is the only company which can take on Boeing even though it is smaller and less powerful. If it was an American company Boeing would have met the DoJ by now I think.
What would have happened to Microsoft if its competitors (Netscape, Oracle,...) were not American companies?
Right, no DoJ case.

MM-lxxxxviii     Friday

2000-04-07

Less cold but more ice. OK it still freezes but only just (-0°C) and the ice melts easily. Halfway to Venlo there is such a beautiful sunrise that I try to take some pictures of it. Taking pictures trough the windscreen, while driving is only possible with a digital camera with an LCD. Using a classic view finder at 90Km/h is rather difficult. Taking pictures of a sunrise without using special lenses is rather useless. So there is nothing to post, you'll have to take my word for it but is was beautiful
The rest of the day was bright again.

I have had my head down in documentation the whole day. It looks like I will have to rewrite all the snippets I have. One thing is good, I don't have to research them again.

Posted two days late, so tomorrow is filled

MM-ic     Saturday

2000-04-08

Cool but no frost in the morning, bright and sunny for the rest of the day. Sunny but not too warm (19°C in the afternoon).

Shopping. because my father and Suzane are off for two (or three) days I have to provide for my own. Normally my father buys the ingredients but no he didn't so my shopping turns in a hunting - gathering expedition.

The whole afternoon is spent in the garden. Digging it up, except where the spring onions are and putting in the potatoes. This year we have been visited by a ground-rat. That is a small shrewd like animal that eats plant roots . From the hundred some leeks only seven survived, most of the others have been eaten throughout the winter. Dig up the survivors, clean and chop them up for their last resting place, in the freezer (and later the soup).

A spade is no keyboard, it requires a different type of callus. By lack of that I get the precursor for calluses. Yes, that is beginning blisters :-)

I have some delicious lamb steaks with white rice and an onion-mushroom souse. With a few good glasses of wine.

MM-c     Sunday

2000-04-09

High clouds have kept the temperature from dipping too low. The cloud retreats for yet another bright day, there remains however a chill wind so while the thermometer goes up all the way to 20°C it doesn't feel that way.

I did the laundry and later have a lot of problems keeping it on the wire for drying. Luckily the drying is fast with all that wind and sunshine.

And I spent the rest of the morning and a large part of the afternoon digging in my brothers garden. Digging is much easier there because there are far less weeds and no horsetails at all. His garden is bordered by other gardens while ours borders on the railroad, which is a weed highway and breeding ground.
After digging about half the garden and planting 106 potatoes I stop with a broken back and blistered hands.

The rest of the day I spend pruning some more. it is a bit late for pruning because new shoots are sprouting. I should have started at least a month earlier. There is no helping though the pruning must be done, better late than not.

I bake myself a set of small dry pizzas with bacon and chorrizo. Washed down with a ligh Chianti.

Apart from an hour for these postings and reading my mail this has been a computer less weekend. I did not post yesterday nor Friday, I just wrote it now and post it all (well all is not that much).