Professional Background (was: Re: Case Sensitivity & @bk)

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Wed, Jul 21, 2004 at 06:43:13PM -0400, GCC Consulting wrote:
> Since this thread started with my post, I would like to give my
> background.

Aw, cool.  "What I did this lifetime".  I love these essays.  :-0

> I come from a business background into programming. I started with
> a programmable Monroe electronic calculator which could be used as
> a terminal to a mainframe. Moved to Texas Instrument ti56 & ti59
> programmable calculators. About the same time I learned basic.

Yeah, that was a while ago. 

> Learned shell programming when I got my first XENIX system and the
> moved to Unix.

<aol>
Meetoo.
</aol>

Weren't many books on it back then, were there?

> Went to work as sales manager for an IBM VAR and was taught RPG II   .
> programming Do that for a while and you are really working in a      .
> structured language                                                  .

Whoa yeah.  Each column means a different thing.  Got a system 38 in my
garage you can have, free.  5250's and everything.

Works?  You want it to work?  :-)

> I still prefer filePro as I can accomplish a lot with little effort.

And I never claim you can't.

> A quick example of this is one of my main client's every once in a
> while will check to see if he can get better software. He is running a
> custom application.
>
> When he asks how long it will take to get a modification done, he is
> told it would be submitted, considered, and if they agree and analysis
> will be done. Then they will get back with a price. Once the contract
> has been signed, it may take up to 2 months to start the project. He
> asks, "what if I need a new report". They tell him 4-6 weeks.
>
> Now, the sales manager for this company is someone who I worked with
> years ago. My client tells him, "Richard does the report for me right
> away. I get some modifications with a few days and others with the
> month.
>
> That's the nice thing about filePro. It's fast and easy to build or
> modify an application.

Indeed.  But you know what?  Depending on the size of the app and the
impact of the change, sometimes that big cycle is called for...

> Now I'm by no means the most experienced programmer using filePro
> although I have been at it for more then 20 years. I learn a lot by
> following the questions on the list, attending the conferences and,
> yes, attending STN classes. The fp chat room is another place to
> learn.
>
> Now, I've bared my chest; What are the languages you program in/have
> programmed in?

Hmmm... let's see.  Some COBOL, aways back when.  Lots of shell
scripting over the years; including an entire system that wrote
schemata and tables for Informix SQL; some of the SQL itself, of
course; fair amount of perl lately; I'm digging into Python; lots (and
lots [and lots]) of filePro over the last 15 years -- 3 or 4 complete
reimplementations of systems people already had running; I've had a
fair sized hand in an almost ground-up rewrite of Fourgen accounting,
as well as the creation and maintenance of at least a dozen customized
front ends to it for things like sales and service tracking.

I've also created 3 or 4 systems from the ground up, including a
complete project tracking system for a graphic arts production company,
a complete overseas purchasing management system for a manufacturer's
rep in imported goods and a records storage management application,
including barcode scanning and printout (on those Lexmark's I love to
brag about).

Of the last 20 years, I'd estimate I spent 15 of them as a full-time
systems analyst and programmer, mostly on Unix, mostly on filePro, for
companies from 1 to 200 employees and $100K to 46M a year in revenue.

The rest of the time I spent helping build a TV network's IT department
(oh yeah: FoxPro Mac.  And some dBase IV/Clipper :-), and being an art
director for a medical newspaper.

And studying.  Formal study of programming and analysis is fairly thin
on the ground in the filePro community, from what I can infer --
filePro almost militates in favor of this; that's precisely their
target market.  "Computerize your company without having to know
anything about computer programming!"

Ok, maybe that's not *exactly* how that black retail-box packaging
read, but it was something akin to that.  :-)

And there's a wall you hit when you try to do that.  I call it a wall
because, IME, the slope of the curve changes *drastically*.  So there's
a reason for formal (or semi-formal :-) training in analysis and systems
design.  I adduce this as partial explanation for the reason why the
things about filePro's design which tick me off... do.

Cheers,
-- jr "who's next?" a
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra at baylink.com
Designer                          Baylink                             RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates        The Things I Think                        '87 e24
St Petersburg FL USA      http://baylink.pitas.com             +1 727 647 1274

	"You know: I'm a fan of photosynthesis as much as the next guy,
	but if God merely wanted us to smell the flowers, he wouldn't 
	have invented a 3GHz microprocessor and a 3D graphics board."
					-- Luke Girardi