Boss talk

What he says: "How is it going?"
What he means: "Why aren't you finished yet?"

What he says: "This is a challenging task."
What he means: "I don't know how to do it either."

Artifacts

I have to fight to suppress a smile whenever I hear people talk about the "artifacts" that have to be produced as part of any modern systems development methodology.  As far as I can tell, the term "artifact" has replaced the more descriptive "deliverable", but that's not what I find amusing.

To me the word "artifact" has always meant something like: "An man-made object of historical or scientific value that has no practical use."  Or, in another sense, "data corruption produced by an error in the process that measures the data".  To those of us in the trenches who are required to create "artifacts" in addition to executable code, both of these definitions seem apt.

Ergonomic impact of full screen debugging tools

Speaking of RDz, as I was in my last post, full screen debugging tools can have an unexpected ergonomic impact, at least on my decrepit old frame.

When writing code, launching and monitoring batch jobs, or testing an online screen the old fashioned way, I tend to sit back in my chair in a fairly relaxed posture.  Debugging interactively, whether using RDz or another tool, tends to change that.  I lean forward in my chair intently focused on the screen in front of me as I watch the code execute.    I feel poised, ready to pounce when the next breakpoint comes up or when the execution flow appears to go awry.

All this is good fun (I love debugging), but it gets physically wearisome when you do it continuously for 8 hours or so.

Cruelty to Mainframers

Was IBM deliberately cruel to us old mainframers when they designed RDz?  Why else would they assign F8 to "Run until next breakpoint"?  I cannot tell you how many RDz debugging sessions I've ruined by hitting F8 in the source window when all I meant to do was scroll down. 

Social media inside the company firewall

After the first kneejerk reaction to ban social media sites from the workplace, companies are now beginning to explore ways to exploit them.  In some quarters social media are touted as a way to spur productivity by encouraging employees to share ideas.

I have a few concerns about this trend.

1.  It is based on the perhaps dubious assumption that 1000 average people are wiser than one wise man.
2.  In any group collaboration only a few voices will be heard.  Ask anyone who's been on a committee and they will tell you that a vocal minority tends to dominate.
3.  The Man is watching.  Will people be willing to put forward unconventional ideas knowing that the Boss is watching?  No one wants to look stupid, so the less confident individuals will hold their peace.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

I live in Canada, and I have a question for my fellow Canadians. With people all over the world dying in the streets for the right to vote why do less than 60% of us bother to show up at the polls?  The numbers are truly dismaying.


Honour their sacrifice by voting on May 2.  It's more than a right, it's a duty.  

Down with periods!

I still see recently written Cobol programs where the author uses a period after virtually every Procedure Division statement.  


I find this puzzling.  


The introduction of END-IF over 20 years ago has made periods unnecessary in the Procedure Division except for the end of a paragraph and paragraph names.  When maintaining a period-infested program I like to remove all unnecessary periods in the paragraph I am working on.  If I have time, I change the necessary periods to END-IF and NEXT SENTENCE to CONTINUE.  If you are careful, there is very little risk in doing this, and you will leave the program a little better than you found it.  Make it Right!