A couple of things got me frustrated today, so much so that I was making non-verbal noises audible to my cube neighbors and prompting them to ask what was up. Well, it's more about what's down, or going down, as is often the case when you're a software jockey.
[update: that's 128Mb, not 128k that I have on my machine...
My first frustration today was about an application that I wrote a while back for co-workers to use. It's a specialized editing tool, written in VB, running on the Windows machines of a small number of users. One user has been having problems lately when she tries to save the edited files. The program appears to be functioning normally, she's not getting any error messages but the save doesn't actually happen. When she opens the file later, the changes she made are gone.
This is a user who works at home in the Seattle area, so we've been trying to troubleshoot and gather information via phone and email. And we're relying on her ability to observe her own actions and report the state of her machine, etc. Any readers who have done this kind of work (helldesk, developers, etc.) will know this approach is fraught with problems. Even the most experienced software user can miss something critical in their environment or the way in which they are using the software.
What really makes me want to smash my head against a wall is that this problem only happens to this one user and we haven't been able to recreate it here. She's reported it a few times in the past several months and each time it 'went away'. Now it appears the bugaboo is back, and not just happening sporadically, but every time she tries to save a file.
I love my job, I really do, but I hate this kind of thing -- errors that only happen to one person and can't be recreated under lab conditions. And what's up with problems that seem to happen more often over time?! I've volunteered to create a diagnostic version of the application, something that will log what it's doing so we can attempt to catch it in the act. That would require someone (maybe me) running it on her machine, recording the results and observing the user in action. We still haven't ruled out user error as the culprit. For now my manager has advised me to wait, I think he's trying to get more information before he commits me to work on it.
But, hey, that's not what made me grunt, speak in tongues and smack my books on the desk. No, VisualAge Java and my puny little RAM resource made me do that. See I’m trying to learn, no wait.. I should employ positive language … I’m learning how to use VisualAge Java so I can do a project. VisualAge because it’s what other people in the company are using, so don’t ask me why I chose it, that’s why. Anyhow, VisualAge is a bit of a challenge coming from the VB IDE I’m so accustomed to, and more recently, Visual Interdev. The Java part isn’t a big deal, I can program in Java using notepad. It’s the environment and vocabulary that have me tied in knots. And that’s not all, not only is it a challenge to get my brain around, my machine can barely support it. Every time I get VS up, my machine is noticeably slower. Today VS croaked while I was in the middle of creating a servlet, right after my machine gave me a friendly warning about running out of virtual memory.
The poor thing has been telling me about virtual memory for a while now and I just ignore it and move on. Well, I can’t ignore it anymore apparently, I need more RAM if I’m going to keep using VA. How much memory do I have now, you ask? A pittance, a mere 128k speck of memory compared to the 64Mb recommended by IBM… an even smaller speck compared to the 128Mb the author of my VA book recommends “if you’re not doing anything but VA…”, which is never the case on my machine. Another developer here, who’s been using VA for a while, has 256Mb on his machine and it works fine. So how the heck did I end up with such a tiny puddle of RAM? One of our support guys noticed the lack last week and commented that “developer builds” should have at least 256K… [sigh]… of course, no one has any idea why I didn’t get that much a couple of years ago when this machine was handed over to me.
The good news is I gave this info to my manager and he’s going to see about getting me more RAM, up to the 256Mb my co-dev has. The bad news is that I need to lay off VisualAge until then.. or maybe that’s also good news. No, really it isn’t because I need to get my brain wrapped around it so I can start getting bizzy with my development project. In the meantime, I’m pouring through the issues logs of other applications and investigating bug fixes and enhancements, as well as working on the design documents and diagrams for the Java project.
I’m sure today won’t be the last time I mutter profanities and drop books noisily on my desk, it comes with the territory. I’m just hoping the terrain for the next few days is a little less bumpy. It’s hot enough outside to fry brains to a crisp, I don’t need any more incentive to be grumpy.