filePro Programmer shortage

[John Esak]

> --------------------------------------------------------
>
> Yow!  I got tons of support when I first started back in 1998.
> You remember or
> have heard of Super Radiator.  I took over for Phil Nunnally who
> took over for
> the GM of the company, Ray Birk.  I can vividly remember my first
> day at Super
> Radiator in April of 1998.  Ray handed me a CD from John Esak called the
> "filePro Bible".  He said words to the effect, "Check out this
> CD, learn it,
> live it, and breathe it.  It will get you started.  filePro is
> way different
> from what you did in the Coast Guard (worked a little with
> Progress 4GL and ISAM
> files on a Unisys BTOS/CTOS system), and that mortgage company
> you were at
> (developed mortgage banking databases and reports in Progress for
> a big mortgage
> company)."
>
> Once I found this list, I learned a lot and met some really great
> people too.
> See, I don't want to slam on myself or anything, but I mean, if
> *I* can write a
> program in filePro - anyone can!
>
> The only issues I have is I want to do something or get an
> upgrade, and everyone
> in the company says, "wait - not yet".  Sigh.... Running filePro
> on a 24/7 live
> server can be a real challenge sometimes!
>
> Butch Ammon
> Super Radiator Coils
> Richmond, VA

Interesting, about you being given the fpBible...  I was so happy to finally
get that thing out the door.  I thought it had one of the best filePro
tutorials ever done in it... but I always hated the fact that there is one
slide missing which  got lost somehow. It jumped over the screen which shows
"filePro File / Alien File" and goes directly to the full Define Files
Screen.  I didn't catch that production mistake until long after it was
impossible to change. I always hated the fact that this single "step" in the
"step-by-step"  learning was missing... and I used to think how in the world
are people going to understand anything if the very first thing they see
looked wrong to them and didn't follow along with the actual program.
Happily, many, many folks told me it was really no big deal and the rest of
the Tutorial and all the other stuff in the thing was really good.  still,
it always bothered me like a bad note in an otherwise good track... should
you leave it in  for the rest that is just right, or go to the  trouble of
taking it out and possibly end up with a performance that is not so good...
:-)   Since there were already so many of the damn things out there already,
I opted for the first  choice. :-) The fp"Bible Volume II will have that
page fixed. :-)

As for your comment about 24/7 maintenance, I too, too, am finding this the
most difficult aspect of filePro support. Heck, it just applies to the whole
system!  We are in that situation now, with a server supporting full
production, by the minute , in several locations.  I am always trying to
figure out clever ways to fix the thing 'while-it's-running" and that is not
very easy.  I'm constantly thinking about the "I Love Lucy" chocolate
conveyor  belt episode. Our boxes come off of about 30 machines every few
seconds/minutes, each needing a specific , unique, bar coded and human
readable label, each posting into the real-time production system.. and that
tying immediately into the sales/order-entry/tracking system on an
up-to-the-second basis.  It is sometimes okay when problems happen here, but
the server also controls the output of labels and paper tracking at other
locations around the country... when something out of my control goes down,
like a T1. It is just panic time...  Scheduled maintenance and other
upgrades are also very hard to do.   I have written one methodology into our
thre major systems recently which is making things quite a lot easier. It
allows me to work on a "pre-live" system without impacting on _anything_ at
all... debug until the new addition/modification is working properly... and
then press one "button" and the whole change is moved into place in one
instant.  It is completely invisible  (or almost completely invisible) to
the operators of the systems and it has changed my life with regard to
deployment and software distribution. I will describe this paradigm in some
future message should anyone care to hear about it... but then again, it
might not be "good enough" for the general readership here, it being one of
those rather "elegant"  implementations that entirely serves our need
without considering the  zillions of possibilities and different conditions
for everyone else out there.  I'm a little gun shy of putting out any good
solutions with full code...   This forum has become a little lop-sided  in
the  offerings of those who enjoy sending out a thorough and "real"
description of "how-to-do" this or that, like myself and a very few others,
and those who send up just a casual English description of the  idea with no
time spent on actually supplying the nitty-gritty code and discussion.   I
can't do that very easily, so taking the huge amount of time to do that has
become less than satisfying lately.  If there are more people in our
position needing such a small example  about live distribution of filePro
software into a non-stop production environment, perhaps, I'll take that
time.  Otherwise, maybe the two of us can just talk about it sometime in the
Room.

Last quick comment, and I wish you could show your PTB (by the way I
remember Phil Nunnely, he used to frequent the list here and was a good
guy.)  Tell them that upgrading immediately to the latest and greatest
version of filePro (and almost any software) is my chosen mode.  Don't want
this to become a thread or topic of any kind... there are considerable
counter opinions, I know....  however, that is the mode which has helped me
most over the past 20 years of fielpro.  I could quote specific reasons and
examples of why I take  this path, but  I am running out of time just now,
and it would do just that... start up a thread about it all... and we've
been down this topic before.  Rather not do it again.  Having the latest and
greatest features and fixes first though has always stood me in good stead,
though, and just wanted to say this road  even with the few problems it may
cause every so often, outweighs the lessened productivity of the other
"philosophy" of if it aint broke don't fix it....

Take care,

John Esak

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