22-VI-1989.
This photo, judging by how we're all dressed, is more probably in september, but... the atmosphere was the same. Sitting, left: Grgi, Blaža closer. Behind the desk, Nena. Standing, Brata, Vanji. Sitting to the right: a customer and Sale.
My first task in DBA was not the first. The first was supposed to be something for the lawyers, where we'd keep data about cases, involved parties, their relationships etc. I didn't quite understand how Sale's framework works, and the prospective customer vanished, so it didn't happen. I guess we wasted just a couple of hours on that.
The actual first app was the gas meter readout, and I started writing it today. I first started writing the postal numbers table/form, having learned that lesson at stambena app (well, this was on 28th). The gas distributor had the idea to make a portable gadget a part of the readers' gear, and initially that was supposed to be the PsionOrg (or some other thing by Psion). We borrowed one from somewhere (the company itself?) and I started learning its OPL language, and even tried to write some code for it, but then they switched to some far bulkier gadget from Ei Niš. It didn't quite have a programming language as such, or what they had didn't really have any decent instruction set. I managed to build an entry form, but it didn't have too much logic in itself, relying strictly on the walkogram, i.e. the physical layout of the houses in the street, so the list of addresses had to be upload in that order, and the guy would just type in the number on the meter. If he couldn't get in, he'd just skip to the next address. The only other option was to skip back to the last unvisited one, or the next. No search, no validation, not even sure it had šđžčć. But I made it work to an extent.
The addresses were a problem. This was the time when The Party was losing power, the dissolution of SFRY was in the air (though it would take two more years until it happened). Among the first signs of it was the move to rename places - sometimes to what they were before, sometimes to just anything but the current name. So the lookups would be a problem. OK, the places were easy, you used the postal number as a key and if/when the place changed its name, you just enter the new name in the record in mesta.dbf and you're done. Of course, having them type the names of the places anywhere else was out of the question, that would lead to exactly the shit I had on 22-V-1987..
Streets were the problem. Really fast, like within the hour, I realized that I can't have a table with just street names, and I can't have the street name in everyone's address. Because... if I had such a table, I'd have a street key in the address. Now if the street changed its name... it would change it in one place only. There can be a dozen other places with the same street name, specially if it was Maršala Tita, and those others will most definitely not rename theirs to the same new name on the same day. So I'd have to create a new street record, or if the street already existed under this new name, use that. And then replace the street code for anyone of that street in that place alone. Which is not that bad, but still some work. If I didn't have a street table, then the street name would have to be in the address record, and the new name would have to be replaced for anyone in that street - and how do I find them, with all the typing errors, abbr. names etc.
So the solution was to have a street-in-place table. So yes, they'd have to enter the same street six times if it existed in six places, but then they'd be done.
The app eventually got almost tried in the field, but the gas company was too disorganized, and too much under influence (or some sort of blackmail) by Big Ćale and his erc at the time, so it never actually worked.
The machine on which I did this was, IIRC, an XP. We did have about half-half of those and 16MHz 286es, of course all of them from Taho's company in Slovenia.
Mentions: 22-V-1987., 08-III-1990., Aleksandar Raskov (Sale), Blagoje Vrbović (Blaža), Brata Avramov, DBA, erc, Ferenc Gereg (Grgi), Nevena Žaja (Nena), PsionOrg, stambena zadruga, Tanasije Rijepić (Taho), Vilmoš Baranji (Vanji), Živa Vilin (Big Ćale), in serbian
20-V-2020 - 16-V-2026