Keep banging the rocks together guys

In a previous job (a Synon/Cool/Advantage/Allfusion/Whatever/2e shop) I had a conversation with our “technical” manager regarding my approach to developing an RPG application to send and receive Websphere MQ messages formatted in XML. Whatever/2e is rather good (if a little out of date) at some things but rather bad at others: interfacing with Webshere MQ and parsing XML fall into the rather bad category. The conversation went something like this…

Me: I’m going to use RPGIV and ILE for this one.
Boss: Erm… OK, as long as it adheres to the standards.
Me: Do we have any standards for RPGIV and ILE?
Boss: No. What do you want to do?
Me: Well, I’d like to use stuff like modules, service programs, procedures, long field names and mixed case (we were restricted to uppercase and 6 characters in RPGIII).
Boss: Not allowed to use long field names and mixed case.
Me: Why not?
Boss: Standards.
Me: What standards?
Boss: Well, uppercase is more readable! (fair point, most of her emails were in uppercase).
Me: WOT, LIKE IN BOOKS AND STUFF? (I walked away shaking my head muttering something about Luddites and did it my way).

This was just one of many similar conversations throughout my career.

I’m very fortunate right now to be working for an organization which embraces newer technology and both encourages and enables programmers to use the right tool for the right job.

So, if you’re work in an environment where your only tool is a hammer and all the problems are nails, I suggest that you have a look at Bob Cozzi’s article (written in mixed case funnily enough) “It’s time to get out of the stone age“. This particular hammer hits the nail firmly on the head and obeys the first rule of IT Management by fixing the blame – firmly with IT Management. Print it out and leave a copy on your manager’s desk – assuming that you have internet access of course.

It’s not often that you’ll hear me defending IT Management but I don’t believe that they are completely to blame. If they start using RPGIV, C, C++ or Java they are going to need to train their people who will then leave; or hire new people who already have these skills. I know far too many iSeries programmers who are only too happy to plod along, safe in their own comfort zones, unwilling or unable to invest in their own skills portfolio. Decent iSeries people are hard to come by, decent iSeries people with broad skill sets are like hen’s teeth.

What came first, the dinosaur or the egg?

Big brother

For a while now, Sam has been asking when he can have a little brother or sister. Yesterday Cathy and I were able to tell him – mid January. Cathy had her 12 week scan yesterday revealing a very wriggly little neveratosser with all the bits in the right place. Sam is delighted at the idea of being a big brother - I think that he will be the best big brother in the world, but I’m a little bit biased. The baby is due to arrive mid January which kind of spanners up the ski season (for Cathy, Sam and I are off to the slopes) but we’re all rather chuffed about the whole thing.

I’m off for a lie down now – I feel that I deserve it.

You say potato, I say potahto

Messing about with the IBM Toolbox for Java.

What I asked for…

ErrorDialogueAdaptor errorHandler = new ErrorDialogueAdaptor(f);

What I really needed was…

ErrorDialogAdapter errorHandler = new ErrorDialogAdapter(f);

It took me a little while to figure it out.

Rassenfrassentassenfrassentassen…what we need is a DWIM.

CSS/HTML Help

Would one of you CSS/HTML experts be kind enough to tell me how I can get the main column and the right hand column to start on the same line when using IE. It looks fine in Firefox but I don’t want my IE using visitors (get Firefox guys) to have a less than perfect neveratossBlog viewing experience.

BTW, thanks to Andy for the W3SC vaildator link. As we say in the IT industry, “It’s on my to do list.”

Clicky for CSS.

A lick of paint

I though that I’d have a bit of a change around template wise.

A bit of free format RPG…

…and we’re not talking about dungeons and dragons here, we’re talking dates.

So, we need a character representation of a Timestamp with a space between the date and the time retaining any leading zeros and we don’t want date separators but we do want time separators. OK?

Simple, you just need to use some built in functions like this…

String =
%trim(%editw(%dec(%date(%timeStamp):*YMD):’0 ‘)) +
space +
%trim(%editw(%dec(%time(%timeStamp):*HMS):’0 : : ‘));

I’m off for a lie down.

284,012,334 seconds and I don’t regret a day of it

It was our wedding anniversary yesterday. Cathy and I celebrated nine years of wedded bliss by staying home and watching telly. According to some websites it was our Pot, Willow or Leather anniversary. Does anyone know of a decent drug dealer and a fetish shop near St Paul’s Cathedral?

Oh, and the day before was my lovely niece Joanne’s brithday and my not so lovely old friend Robin’s too.

Evil

According to The Independent today, a British man from Suffolk has a rather novel way of making money. His main business is selling animal feeds, shed, outhouses etc. But, this particular evil bastard has a sideline manufacturing gallows equipment for export to countries which have a use for such things. His product line includes a “truck mounted gallows” and a “multi-hanging mobile public execution system”.

To insivinity and beyond

Last night at bed time…

Have I told you how much I love you today Sam?
Nope.
I love you millions and billions and trillions and zillions.
Well I love you insivinity Daddy.
Insivinity?
Yeah, it goes on forever and ever.
Do you mean infinity?
Yeah, insivinity.
Say IN.
in.
Say FIN.
fin.
Say IT.
it.
Say TEE.
tee.
Put them all together.
Insivinity.
IN-FIN-IT-TEE.
Insivinity.
Night-night sweetheart.
Night-night Daddy.

Commuting and walking around London…

…provides heaps of material for blogging. So, let’s start with some messages for some of my fellow commuters.

Look where you’re going you gormless twat!

You are not more important than me, you just think that you are.

Look where you’re going you gormless twat!

Your journey is not more important than mine, you just think that it is. If it were more important than mine there would be flashing blue lights and sirens – This is a distinct possibility.

Look where you’re going you gormless twat!

Pushing in to the ticket queue at the railway station is going to make you unpopular.

Look where you’re going you gormless twat!

Feking around with your iPod/Mobile Phone doesn’t excuse you from looking where you’re going.

Look where you’re going you gormless twat!

Feking around with your iPod/Mobile Phone and crossing busy roads should be mutually exclusive activities.

Look where you’re going you gormless twat!

Placing your bag/coat/newspaper on a seat on an overcrowded train doesn’t entitle you to two seats.

Look where you’re going you gormless twat!

Tutting when someone asks you to move your bag/coat/newspaper from the spare seat next to you will make you unpopular.

Look where you’re going you gormless twat!

Looking at your feet or a point some some five million miles away whilst walking does not give you the right of way.

Look where you’re going you gormless twat!

Your mobile phone ring tone isn’t charmingly amusing – it’s annoying. It doesn’t define you as a quirky individual, just a knob head!

Look where you’re going you gormless twat!

I can hear your iPod.

Look where you’re going you gormless twat!

Your music is crap.

Look where you’re going you gormless twat!

You have the whole of London to stand in – I’m standing in this bit so fek off!

Look where you’re going you gormless twat!

Have a nice day!

There, that’ll do for a start.