Fri 28 Feb 97.

First off, if you're into music, you might like to go out and buy Kula Shaker's CD. It's called Kula Shaker. You can get more info at

http://www.music.sony.com/Music/ArtistInfo/KulaShaker/main.html

I don't plug things often, but this is just plain ace. I've played in three bands (lead and keyboards), one brass band, one choir and one punk set (yeah, I know...). I know and like music and this works for me. Ok, you don't agree with me - fine. It is a free world after all, but at least give these guys a shot. I bought the CD some two months ago. It's been on pretty much non-stop ever since. Just now they were on "TFI-Friday" (that's a show we have on Channel 4 in the U.K.) playing Deep Purple's "Hush" and it was pretty good. I would suggest you ignore the "typical marketing hype" and just listen to the music.

Friday night. It's been a hard week. Stage two is drawing to a close. Friday night I drink Guinness (which is why I'm using dictating software now rather than typing :-)). I have a hot bath, speak to Rob round about 10 or 11, drink some more Guinness, listen to music (probs Purple or Floyd) and go to bed. That's it. I work my nuts off for the other 6 days/nights of the week, so Friday I look forward to.

I love my job, but being human is important too. It raises the question of whether you can get too wrapped up in software/work? I really believe the answer to be "yes". It's all to easy to forget about life. Too easy to forget about the "real world". At the end of the day, I don't want to be lying on my death bed saying "I wish I'd done that", but at the same time personal responsibilities are important too.

Finding a "happy medium" between work and play is difficult, but I, at least, am happy to report that after the initial upheaval of last year now appear to have sorted out some kind of "routine" where I maximise my work effort and keep "the family" happy at the same time (sort of...).

Some people have expressed concern at Microsoft's apparent "sudden support" for the Mac.I must admit it surprised me somewhat too. Having thought about it though, maybe it's not so amazing. I now feel that if there was no Mac platform, Microsoft would surely be "hauled over the coals" by the Department of Justice for having an almost complete monopoly on the software world. So having Microsoft turn out over one hundred developers for the new Mac "Word", whilst of dubious nature must surely rank as a bit of a "God send"?

OK, this is a few days later...
Anyway, we're in the middle of a very tricky piece of coding on Anvil, hence me sitting here writing this! This is me having a rest. I see, finally, that the "news people" are starting to lay off Apple! Indeed I've even see two pieces just recently where Apple were positively praised (3400 mainly)! Amazing.

On the home front, our garden fence got blown over in the high winds - the price of replacement is just plain amazing! 300% for labour! I don't think so... So Cath is waiting for me to finish this "tricky bit", and get on with it! Cath also decided now would be a good time to repaint the outside of the house. Now we have a room fool of masonry paint, again waiting for me to finish this "tricky bit".

Last week Cath decided now would also be a good time to get that "New shed" she's been going on about for centuries. So now we have a new garden shed (but unfortunately no fence yet...). I'm pretty sure she thinks I sit up here all kinds of weird hours "playing games" (I wish!) and really should be doing more around the house. I'd love too, but I'd need at least 27 hours in a day.

I've noticed that the nights are slowly but surely getting shorter! This is good.

Winter is great for programming, but not much use for anything else. Molly, the camper van, needs work for the summer camping, so I've been out to many VW dealers getting bits and bobs. Most of it is the result of last summer's excursion into the ditch at Loch Ness (punctured water tank, split drive shaft boot - nothing serious that an hour "underneath" won't sort out). Unfortunately, the weather of late has been just atrocious.

On the development front, we're at probably the most crucial stage with Anvil. We had two choices for the future. Either simply wrap up Fantasm in a more elegant front end, or rewrite the whole lot, embracing most everything we could think of.

We decided on the later (some two years ago). The result so far is a thing called "Anvil". A project manager. Phase two testing has been skipped, as there really wasn't much to see or do - it was nearly all design, and unfortunately without phase three was pretty untestable in practice anyway. Phase two is complete bar some minor work (designed but not coded). Anyway, phase three is with live tools and live projects. Anvil takes two types of tools - tools that are tied in with the build process in some way or another, and Anvil plugs. Most Anvil processes are routed through these plugs. This allows us to expand, maintain and improve in a very modular fashion. So, here I am trying to get the first plug working. I know this is the most tricky part. Anvil has to play "system loader" to get these things installed, which means we have to be extremely careful in the design. And of course having two separate architectures to support is no joy either. It's a case of design, implement, test, redesign, implement, test ad nausium. Every time you think you have some structure or another nailed down, you find you need to add just one more field, which means going back to the docs, then the templates, then the code. Initial design with lots of "spare" fields helps. It's tempting to forget about the docs, and just update them when it's all working. But, I know from painful past experience this ultimately leads to 100% grief :-) So now I design from the docs up, whereas I've certainly been "guilty" of doing it the other way round in the past. There are questionable reasons for this:

1. Maybe I'm getting old?
2. Maybe just wiser?
3. Maybe it's because this is just a huge project?

It's strange how the things you think will be hard sometimes aren't, and the things you think will be a doddle can turn out to be completely insane.

There's a place nearly every programmer goes to once in a blue moon, or has been at least once. The place where you are completely immersed in the code. It's everything.

On your left is the problem. On your right there is nothing. Then to the far right you see some code is starting to form. The problem moves right slightly, the code looks better and moves left. Pretty soon they will meet and you will feel it. The code will go in, it'll work straight off. You will most probably be gesticulating about the room making exaggerated sexual hip movements, punching the air and whispering loudly "YES!". Then you'll be standing and pointing at the monitor, saying things like "Got you, you b*stard". Finally, you'll sit back down and realise you need a coffee as it's been at least fifteen minutes since the last one.

Maybe it'll happen twice a year, maybe more, sometimes not once. But when it does, you'll know it. It'll never happen when working on old code. It has to be brand spanking new.

So why, when you're juggling twenty different processes in your head whereas all day you've been cruising along, why does the phone ring at that very moment? It's true. Every time you get into a really complex area, and you wish you could just plug in more "brain", and you're completely oblivious to most anything, the phone rings. Weird. And a phone ringing seems to be very insistent. If the doorbell goes, I can ignore it. I've had a swarm of wasps fly in through the window and crawl all over the monitor and not noticed (true - ask Rob). But the phone ringing simply brings me back to reality amazingly fast and that wicked piece of code I was just about to delicately nudge into place is gone forever. Maybe I need some kind of "telephone ignorance" therapy?

Anyway, I'd better get back to this "hard bit".

Till the next time...