Note To End Users
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Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:
All users in all situations always want Excel.
This is the law, indeed. A client once asked me to do all the aged receivables in a spreadsheet, but "do it so everybody can work on it at the same time". This was for a company that did its own hire purchase for heavy machinery, with thousands of contracts, all different, compound interest calculated daily on overdue payments, and lots of people who didn't like to pay. :wtf: I ended up giving them a SQLS/VB6 (this was pre .NET) solution. The only thing that really annoys me is that after the first three months I never once got a service call, and they are still using it now, over ten years later. :(
Chris C-B wrote:
The only thing that really annoys me is that after the first three months I never once got a service call, and they are still using it now, over ten years later. :(
May be replaced with Excel X| :suss:
Yusuf May I help you?
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Chris C-B wrote:
The only thing that really annoys me is that after the first three months I never once got a service call, and they are still using it now, over ten years later. :(
May be replaced with Excel X| :suss:
Yusuf May I help you?
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Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:
All users in all situations always want Excel.
This is the law, indeed. A client once asked me to do all the aged receivables in a spreadsheet, but "do it so everybody can work on it at the same time". This was for a company that did its own hire purchase for heavy machinery, with thousands of contracts, all different, compound interest calculated daily on overdue payments, and lots of people who didn't like to pay. :wtf: I ended up giving them a SQLS/VB6 (this was pre .NET) solution. The only thing that really annoys me is that after the first three months I never once got a service call, and they are still using it now, over ten years later. :(
Chris C-B wrote:
I ended up giving them a SQLS/VB6 (this was pre .NET) solution. The only thing that really annoys me is that after the first three months I never once got a service call, and they are still using it now, over ten years later. :(
I think writing an app so good that after a decade of use there're no bugs or support calls is something to be proud of. :cool:
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
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Chris C-B wrote:
I ended up giving them a SQLS/VB6 (this was pre .NET) solution. The only thing that really annoys me is that after the first three months I never once got a service call, and they are still using it now, over ten years later. :(
I think writing an app so good that after a decade of use there're no bugs or support calls is something to be proud of. :cool:
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
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Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:
All users in all situations always want Excel.
This is the law, indeed. A client once asked me to do all the aged receivables in a spreadsheet, but "do it so everybody can work on it at the same time". This was for a company that did its own hire purchase for heavy machinery, with thousands of contracts, all different, compound interest calculated daily on overdue payments, and lots of people who didn't like to pay. :wtf: I ended up giving them a SQLS/VB6 (this was pre .NET) solution. The only thing that really annoys me is that after the first three months I never once got a service call, and they are still using it now, over ten years later. :(
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Your fantasies regarding appearance and functionality rarely align with the reality of implementation.
.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001I didn't realize you got a gig at Microsoft. :-D
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting Services -
Agreed. Developers know what users need and want better than the users themselves do, so the visual aspect of all interfaces should be based on FileMatrix[^]
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Thanks - but one teensy weensy little (billable) bug every few years would have helped my bottom line. :-\
Now you know the reason the lease/subscription/support model is so popular. I went broke in the 90s trying to survive off sales of our app alone, eventually bailed and the guy who owns it changed the model to support/lease.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
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They don't want to ruin only your eyes -- Alphaville? Britney Spears?! Celine Dion?!?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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You should be happy, man... My users just give me an Excel spreadsheet and say "Make it kind of like that"... So I have to GUESS what they really want, and then find out six months after release that it wasn't how they wanted it, but they were too afraid to ask for changes and just went back to doing things manually.
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels)There are servers all over the world that are littered with unused applications that were supposed to act like the spreadsheet. I developed about 4 of them (2 timecards, 1 inventory and a database cross reference) before I realized all they really wanted is to know how to change the color of a cell, or how to add the big flashy something or other to point at whatever it is they're looking for so they don't have to find it or figure out how to find it. Now I just set up the Excel workbook to do what they want. Becuase you folks are correct, they'll end up going back to the spreadsheet.
___________________________________ "It was broke, so I fixed it."
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Your fantasies regarding appearance and functionality rarely align with the reality of implementation.
.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001I wouldn't mind so much if the actual user of the designed system actually gave you all the information you need to design and build the damn thing up front, rather than telling you after the event. I've just designed and built an Access database for storing service records on the machines we manufacture. I was told at the beginning of the excersise that each machine has a unique serial number and is ALWAYS referenced by this number; an ideal primary key for the Machine table. Having set the database up at work for one of the office juniors to use, it now transpires that the service engineers DON'T USE the machine serial number to identify a machine they've serviced! So, the upshot is, we have loads of paper service records which need entering into the database but can't because the primary key field cannot be null. What an absolute bummer, I've to redesign the Machine table and add an auto number instead (no problem in itself) except that there's already a lot of information in the database which will now get screwed up because of changing the primary key field. Why oh why didn't I just use autonumbers everywhere?:mad:
There is only one satisfying way to boot a computer.
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Your fantasies regarding appearance and functionality rarely align with the reality of implementation.
.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
Your fantasies regarding appearance and functionality rarely align with the reality of implementation.
This is why most programmers shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the UI.
The practical reason for freedom is that freedom seems to be the only condition under which any kind of substantial moral fiber can be developed — we have tried law, compulsion and authoritarianism of various kinds, and the result is nothing to be proud of. ~ Albert Jay Nock
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You should be happy, man... My users just give me an Excel spreadsheet and say "Make it kind of like that"... So I have to GUESS what they really want, and then find out six months after release that it wasn't how they wanted it, but they were too afraid to ask for changes and just went back to doing things manually.
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels)Agreed. We had a group of people who, for reporting purposes, would enter their data in an Excel spreadsheet, print it out, then put it wherever it needed to be. Then, if they wanted another view of the data, they'd take the info out of that report, manually massage it, build another spreadsheet, print that out, then pass around the hard copy. So we built them a system where they enter the data once, and we give them all these views in Crystal reports. We don't have to track paper, we just re-run the report for Marhc, 2009 (or whatever) if we want to see that data. We don't have to manipulate data, we just have a series of reports to see the rolled-up data. Great, right? No, after entering the data and viewing the reports, they print off a hard copy and pass that around... Sigh.
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Your fantasies regarding appearance and functionality rarely align with the reality of implementation.
.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
-----
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001I don't get to speak with the users but I spent over three weeks going over colors with my manager on my current project. "More blue." "Less blue." "No a little lighter." "No a little darker." etc, etc, etc. :sigh:
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Your fantasies regarding appearance and functionality rarely align with the reality of implementation.
.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
-----
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001Slow news day, eh?
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I wouldn't mind so much if the actual user of the designed system actually gave you all the information you need to design and build the damn thing up front, rather than telling you after the event. I've just designed and built an Access database for storing service records on the machines we manufacture. I was told at the beginning of the excersise that each machine has a unique serial number and is ALWAYS referenced by this number; an ideal primary key for the Machine table. Having set the database up at work for one of the office juniors to use, it now transpires that the service engineers DON'T USE the machine serial number to identify a machine they've serviced! So, the upshot is, we have loads of paper service records which need entering into the database but can't because the primary key field cannot be null. What an absolute bummer, I've to redesign the Machine table and add an auto number instead (no problem in itself) except that there's already a lot of information in the database which will now get screwed up because of changing the primary key field. Why oh why didn't I just use autonumbers everywhere?:mad:
There is only one satisfying way to boot a computer.
Digital Thunder wrote:
Why oh why didn't I just use autonumbers everywhere?
Very good question. I hope you've learned your lesson for next time.
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Digital Thunder wrote:
Why oh why didn't I just use autonumbers everywhere?
Very good question. I hope you've learned your lesson for next time.
Earl Truss wrote:
Very good question. I hope you've learned your lesson for next time.
:laugh: I'll tell you why, my college lecturer would bollock us if there were other fields that could be used as primary keys. "Auto numbers are only to be used in the event that no other field(s) would qualify as a primary key." I think if he had got his way, he'd have had that statement tattooed across our forheads!
There is only one satisfying way to boot a computer.
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Earl Truss wrote:
Very good question. I hope you've learned your lesson for next time.
:laugh: I'll tell you why, my college lecturer would bollock us if there were other fields that could be used as primary keys. "Auto numbers are only to be used in the event that no other field(s) would qualify as a primary key." I think if he had got his way, he'd have had that statement tattooed across our forheads!
There is only one satisfying way to boot a computer.
The real world taught me a long time ago - "Never use meaningful data as a primary key." Someone will always want to change it (no matter what the data model says about it) and then you're screwed.
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The real world taught me a long time ago - "Never use meaningful data as a primary key." Someone will always want to change it (no matter what the data model says about it) and then you're screwed.
Earl Truss wrote:
Someone will always want to change it (no matter what the data model says about it) and then you're screwed.
Aye, tell me about it. Oh well, you learn from bitter experience! :laugh:
There is only one satisfying way to boot a computer.