Coder Stories - User Intricacies

Coder Stories: I have wanted to do this for a long time, sharing several memorable, fascinating, comical incidents in my software developer life over the years. I started my commercial software engineering career when Nintendo released the first Game Boy. Here is a story from my first commercial software project. 

CS001: User Intricacies

My first production level assignment was to develop a back-office accounting application that keeps track of vehicle costs. The client also wanted a good help system supporting it. It took me about three to four months to complete the development. The software was deployed to an industrial client about 60 kilometers outskirts of Chennai city. I was happy to deploy my first commercial application coded in Nantucket Clipper Summer 87.

Nantucket Clipper is an xBase compiler on MS-DOS. It was a powerful general-purpose programming language, but given its database capabilities, it was used more in data-related applications. I love Clipper, and I was pretty good at it. Clipper was similar to DBase and Foxbase but a compiler that produced an executable. Deployment was uncomplicated. I test my code, copy the executable on a floppy disk, take it to the client location, and copy it onto their PC/XT system-Done. 

The application on start, checks the environment variables and database. If not present, It would pop a confirmation window asking the user's permission to initialize the environment or choose the location if it is already present elsewhere on the drive. Code had steps to auto-initialize the database schema and folder structures and set the appropriate environment variables and parameters for the application. Yes! a rudimentary Infrastructure-as-code.

I deployed the application and explained to the data entry operator how to use the application. I was on my way back.

Next day. I get a call from the client - "the help system is not working." I offer my phone support. The F1 key on the pc-keyboard brought the help windows. I told the client to hit the F1 key from the application. But the client tried it and told me it was not working. My boss told me to check the code and asked me to head back to the client site. I checked my code again and made the typical developer statement - "It works on my machine" :) 

However, I was asked to go to the client's site. It was peak summer in May. Chennai has two suns operating in summer. It was about 105F, where floppy disks can melt. On my TVS-50 moped with a helmet - it was an oven. I reached the client site in about 2 hours. 

One of the biggest perks of being a Software Engineer then is air conditioning. Computers need air conditioning. I go to the accounts depart, where they have cordoned off about 200 square feet for a computer room with A/C. I started our application from the command prompt and hit the F1. It worked. Damn!. I traveled 60 km in 105F.

I called the data entry operator, who reported the bug. The operator came, I hit the F1 key, and help appeared. The operator was amazed. Oh! that is how you press F1. The operator had tried hitting F and 1 separately.

My first lesson learned on the job - when communicating with your client, things are interpreted differently :)

Good Luck!.