Work: 5 Minutes

Arne sticks his head into Betsy’s office and says he wants me to talk with him after I finish talking to Betsy. Betsy and I are talking about the three kinds of dynamic modules. Are dynamic modules the same as PL/I fetchable procedures? I don’t know so we go to the PL/I manuals and still we can’t tell. I’m talking to Betsy because I had Jane review a note I’m writing for the online forum and Jane thought Betsy should be involved because Betsy is managing our glossary. Jane is writing part of the application development guide dealing with how to write a dynamic module. My note is a response to Steve’s note this morning, but mainly I’m repeating what Mike and I agreed to yesterday when he came over to my office to get my help to clarify these terms we’re using. While talking with Betsy I show her how to write a piece of an XEDIT REXX macro that deletes selected lines in graphic syntax charts. How can it tell if it has found the right lines? I solve this problem with the datatype function. I go over to Arne’s office and leave him a note because he’s not there. A minute later, I find him in the hall talking to Tom about what he says he wants to talk with me about. A minute later he and I are in his office talking about the spec. I have reviewed it five times already (draft after draft) and Arne wants me to review it again. It’s better this time but still has problems and he thinks I know as much about it as anyone around here. It’s not always clear that programming understands what they are doing and they are complaining that working on the specifications is keeping them from programming. I tell him yes I’ll review it I’ve already been thinking about a number of problems with it. Over my lunch I call the orthodontist who has studied my teeth for me to ask his receptionist to send the X-rays to my dentist. Both dentist and orthodontist are convinced I grind my teeth in my sleep although this would be hard to prove to me but it shows you we need to work together.

3 February 1988