Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2007-08-06 07:58 pm
azurelunatic) wrote2007-08-06 07:58 pm
Entry tags:
OK, it's petty of me. But.
As item #4 or so of a list of reasons why we can't fill out the $MORNINGSTAR_REPORT daily:
The need for replacement of the $MORNINGSTAR_REPORT itself. The $MORNINGSTAR_REPORT spreadsheet itself is an incredible piece of work, (Note here the ambiguous but expressive phrase) but it betrays the hallmarks of a simple spreadsheet that has flown wildly out of scope to encompass features that it was not originally designed to handle. The $MORNINGSTAR_REPORT is a spreadsheet trying to do the job of a database, and it unfortunately does look, feel, and run like one. The rule of thumb that I was taught is that once a spreadsheet starts tracking any more than three different things, it is time to think about using a database instead. Once more than three spreadsheets are linked together, it is time to start thinking about a database. I highly recommend that the series of sheets be passed along to an actual database designer, who could create a database to take similar inputs and produce similar outputs, but without having to deal with a huge series of very fragile spreadsheets. This is the most important reason. As it stands now, the $MORNINGSTAR_REPORT is nightmarish to deal with, and I go out of my way to deal with it as little as humanly possible. Dealing with it in any capacity on a daily basis would be intolerable.
Said report was intractable today. I couldn't make it behave. In my e-mail to the manager in question, telling him so, I asked, "What is the timeframe on replacing the $MORNINGSTAR_REPORT with a database?" Not "Will we", but "WHEN will we." I'm about to the point where I'm considering quitting this job over that bleeding spreadsheet. Kludge. Whatever.
His auto-reply? This is the thing that makes me feel like I'm being petty.
Thank you for your email. I am on vacation this week [dates]. I will return your correspondents on Monday [date].
Thanks and have a good day...
Correspondents. *snerk*
The need for replacement of the $MORNINGSTAR_REPORT itself. The $MORNINGSTAR_REPORT spreadsheet itself is an incredible piece of work, (Note here the ambiguous but expressive phrase) but it betrays the hallmarks of a simple spreadsheet that has flown wildly out of scope to encompass features that it was not originally designed to handle. The $MORNINGSTAR_REPORT is a spreadsheet trying to do the job of a database, and it unfortunately does look, feel, and run like one. The rule of thumb that I was taught is that once a spreadsheet starts tracking any more than three different things, it is time to think about using a database instead. Once more than three spreadsheets are linked together, it is time to start thinking about a database. I highly recommend that the series of sheets be passed along to an actual database designer, who could create a database to take similar inputs and produce similar outputs, but without having to deal with a huge series of very fragile spreadsheets. This is the most important reason. As it stands now, the $MORNINGSTAR_REPORT is nightmarish to deal with, and I go out of my way to deal with it as little as humanly possible. Dealing with it in any capacity on a daily basis would be intolerable.
Said report was intractable today. I couldn't make it behave. In my e-mail to the manager in question, telling him so, I asked, "What is the timeframe on replacing the $MORNINGSTAR_REPORT with a database?" Not "Will we", but "WHEN will we." I'm about to the point where I'm considering quitting this job over that bleeding spreadsheet. Kludge. Whatever.
His auto-reply? This is the thing that makes me feel like I'm being petty.
Thank you for your email. I am on vacation this week [dates]. I will return your correspondents on Monday [date].
Thanks and have a good day...
Correspondents. *snerk*
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I love ambiguous phrases, they can be so useful. I'd often comment in correspondence to headquarters that "I can not say enough about the assistance of the wing staff in the production of this document." Those in the trade knew what a deadly insult it was, the wing staff preened over what they thought was praise, and I didn't get courts-martialed.
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