Well ... not really new as such ... more like a continuation of one I made a start on 18 years ago!

One of my more thoughtful "users" has recently enquired about the possibility of translating the famous TaskMaster system into Spanish. Tarea de Maestro? I've had a quick play and reckon I have code already in place that could form the basis of a "look-up table" to translate the field labels that appear on the forms. Basically, I would adapt an existing datafile which is already used to enforce standardised descriptions, correct "typos", and such.

"Eqpt type code" would appear as "Codigo del tipo" if a Country field was set to "ES", for instance. And "Manufacturer" would appear as "Fabricante", and all the rest. The bulk of the work required be in the translation of the Help file, however. I have zero Spanish (or any other language) skills myself, of course, but would need to rely upon an on-line translator. I see a long Summer of work stretching ahead of me (so much, then, for any thoughts about digging out my bucket and spade)!

All this has re-kindled memories of an attempt I made on a (much) earlier version to "translate" technical words in a dBASE database from English to Arabic. Because that needed an Arabic character set, and the program was running under good old DOS back in those days, I had used an old version of Nafitha. But I had to rely upon Arab friends (who were, in actual fact, not all that reliable, especially as they never seemed able to agree upon this word or that), coupled with a fair amount of detective work on my own, to work out my Arabic translations. First I made a list of phonetic spellings (so "maintenance" became "al-seena", for example) then used Nafitha to provide the corresponding Arabic script (right to left, of course). That was a long time ago now (yes, 18 years, as already mentioned), but I reckon it would be easier now with modern tools (and character sets)!

Those dBASE databases were quite useful to me at the time. There were three fields. When in a browse you would see the English word in the left-hand column ("grease", let's say), then in the next column we would have entered the phonetic "Arabic" spelling ("sha-ham")* and in the third (thanks to the magic of Nafitha) we would put in the Arabic script. This was very handy for non-Arabic speakers (like me) as I could pronounce the Arabic word whilst understanding what it meant! Ultimately, my aim was to produce the Arabic billing documents required by our client, automatically from my program (and my data).

Why am I mentioning all this? Well, perhaps the time has come to have another go. English to French, Italian, Spanish ... should be straight forward enough. But what about Polish, Tagalog and Turkish, for example? And what about languages that don't use Latin characters (eg, Arabic, Malayalam, Urdu)? Would a simple phonetic "translation" be any use? At the moment I don't see any easy way for the programming languages that I use to call another character set (Arabic, for example) directly to the screen, but this may well be possible. But at the moment I have to rely upon the extended ASCII character set, and switching between Code Pages if necessary and/or possible (that is, nothing esoteric like Unicode).

So, if anyone has any translation data already available, or indeed would like to collaborate on this Great International Gesture, feel free to shout (crier, gridare, gritar ... whatever)!

I wonder whether HTML is the answer?


* In cases where more than one word was available to correspond to the English, I would always default to the common, or "street" version!

Su proyecto podría probar difícil pero este sitio puede ayudar un poco.

http://translate.google.com/translate_t#

Not so difficult, Paul, just time consuming.

But I may well give it a go, anyway. You know, just for the craic as it were.

Thanks for the link. I hope that others will use it when I call for help! As I say, with all these tools at our disposal, there's no excuse, really. The episode I referred to from one of my previous lives was conducted, shall we say, in splendid isolation. No phones, no networks, no nothing ... it was all done from "first principles" (or not at all) back then (back there)!

Ciao!


I meant, of course, "Codigo de tipo" (I told you my Spanish was, er, culo?)

Hi Geoff,

Have you considered converting your exiting help source into XML? Because of their inherent separation of content and structure, XML documents are often preferred by human translators, and perhaps by machine translators these days too. Although XML source is UTF-8 by default, you can specify other character encodings if necessary.

I like the sound of your project and would enjoy collaborating with you. I don't have any language skills, but I've recently come back into the Biomed field after a dozen or so years working as a technical writer, a second career for me after starting out in Biomed in the late 70s. During a stint with IBM, I wrote help documentation in XML and prepared it for translation into 13 languages, so that experience might be useful.

Drew

Hello Drew, and welcome to the forum.

What you're saying is interesting. I'll bear it in mind (chew it over, or whatever). At the moment I'm thinking in terms of a straight forward look-up table being called each time a form is opened that will populate the labels on the form according to the language setting (as a technical writer, no doubt you'll be groaning at such a long sentence)!

That is, Spanish (say) will call the Spanish labels from a simple .dbf file which can be edited, improved, or otherwise tweaked by the end user. So if a guy out in Mexico, say, doesn't like my choice of a Spanish word on a form, then he can change it to something he's less ashamed of. This is the way I prefer to do most of my stuff ... let the users have reasonable access to the underlying data to use and mould to their own particular (or weird even) requirements.

But yes, help file narratives are a different kettle of fish, as there is a lot of text in there. I haven't given it a great deal of thought as yet, but (off the top of my head) I may just provide my usual English file, plus a blank "page" for my more helpful users to fill in for themselves. In actual fact, users at the highest level of access can edit (or screw up, as they wish) my help file anyway! So I have the option there to "leave as is", as they (architects, usually) say.

In truth, my stuff needs a total re-write in a modern language. But who has time for that? Not to mention that dreaded word "funding"! As you must know, most users haven't got a clue how much work it all takes.

Ah, I see what you mean. And I hear what you're saying about rewriting an application and the time it takes. Accurately estimating the time required for such an undertaking is an art. Even if you double an original estimate, with feature creep and unexpected problems of all sorts you can still end up slipping the release date several times.

Good luck with it and if you post your progress updates, I'll read them with interest.

Drew

I've just done a prototype form where I can switch between English and Spanish (or French, German or Italian) labels. Oh yes, we're all good European Comrades now (NOT)!

It's the "Setup Printing" form (see this download for the plain, not yet modified, forms).

Sistema Imprenta anybody?

Yes ... it all takes forever. And users lose interest, patience, and all the rest. Meanwhile, it's a lonely pursuit, best suited to English summers (yes, it's raining again).

And a million little decisions to be made along the way. Like:- would a Spanish-speaking user be au fait with a push-button marked Code Page, or should we try to squeeze in Código pagina? I went for simply Código as there was no space for anything else ... then moved on.*

The real problem is that of the width of field labels and push-buttons. Whilst they may be OK for (sometimes terse) captions in English, they're often not wide enough ... especially for those er, rather long, German words! If we're not careful, what were previously quite nicely crafted forms can end up looking like a Hund's Frühstück!

* I could, of course, have equally well have mentioned Codice pagina abbreviated to Codice ... but anyway, what the Heck do I know about any of that stuff? When the clever (but spotty, I seem to recall) dudes were taking French, s'il vous plaît, I was happily chiseling away in the woodwork shop!

Meanwhile ... here's the next exciting instalment:-

I'm currently looking at the field labels on the various forms and putting the "hooks" in place to permit captions in any Latin script (exempli gratia, what if someone asks for Italian?).

Not a quick job, then, but because it entails re-visiting almost the entire system, it has already unearthed a few daft bugs ... and no doubt there will be more!

So, inshallah it will all be worthwhile, if only because of that.

Most likely (apart from a few easy ones for the purpose of proving the method), I will leave the various "translations" blank ... and let the users fill them in for themselves. That should keep them quiet for a few days, at least! I have also included a "custom" column, so that users can change labels to any ASCII characters that their little hearts desire! So (for instance), if they don't like the word Equipment, but prefer to use Device (or System, Kit, or Junk ... or whatever), then that will be up to them.

OK, I have been burning the midnight oil for a couple of weeks and have come to realise that, as I had the code open on the table, as it were, anyway (yes, just like a surgeon), I may as well "go a little further"*.

So (as well as setting up routines to call alternative captions for form titles, labels etc. as already mentioned), I'm also adding look-up tables for hot-key (keystroke combinations) responses according to what the user is doing, which form has focus etc. (previously these were hard-coded into the program), and a routine to be able to step forward (and back again) through "see also" help topics when a help topic is called (up to five ... it could be more, but I reckon five is enough).

"Feature creep"? Well, perhaps. But as the underlying code is already there, it's really "just" a matter of putting in the hours needed to modify (enhance, tweak, develop, whatever) it all. And, once I've cracked this one, I plan (hope) to give it a rest for a while. Inshallah.

OK, so now I'm at the stage where (when in "design mode") I can see form labels (titles, etc.) that look like:- this_is_a_label. All well and good.

Depending upon the Language setting this can show become This is a label or (rather handily) C'est une étiquette or Este es una etiqueta or even This is a kludge when back in normal mode. In other words, it can be whatever you (the user, that is) chooses it to be. Or, more accurately, bothers to change it to!

So that others may not feel left out here, I could have just as easily chosen:-

Das ist ein etikett
Questo è un marchio
Isto é uma etiqueta

... or any other (bad) translation:-

Ez egy olyan címke
To je štítok
Dây là mot nhãn hieu

... et cetera. And please note (no doubt with sincere admiration), how far and to what extent the "PC campaign" has touched us all here in the UK ... it now seems that even I have been affected (infected?)!

But now I am am wondering if it would be better to provide just the two look-up captions:- namely, English and Local (or whatever ... perhaps I'll come up with better handle at some stage). I am reasoning here that each user is unlikely to be in need of more than one set of alternative captions. That way, I can leave the user to do the work (much preferred)! It will also get them "involved", and may even generate some feedback from them!

So, users who prefer different captions can change and edit them to whatever they want. Be it French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Creole, Pidgin, "predictive text techo-babel" ... or whatever. This means that no single "language" is given precedence over another (oh yes, we're all "PC" now)! Er, apart from English, that is ... but the code has to be written in something, and it happens to be English (or, perhaps more accurately, quasi-American "English" computer-speak). But the really good news is that I get to do (far) less work.

Yes ... the more I think about it, this has to be the way forward!

So, en avant!

We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go
Always a little further: it may be
Beyond the last blue mountain barred with snow,
Across that angry or that glimmering sea,
White on a throne or guarded in a cave
There lives a prophet who can understand
Why men were born: but surely we are brave,
Who take the Golden Road to Samarkand. *

OK, I have been beavering away on this one solidly for two months now.

It's shaped up (turned out) like this:-

1) At the Setup Forms box you get to choose between Default (English), Local and Design captions. In Design mode you see captions on the various forms like:- this_is_a_label. This is so you know which one to look for if you want to change (edit) it.

The intention here being that if a user wanted to develop a set of captions (in Spanish, say), it would be the Local set that would be worked upon, and then (when finished) the setting changed to Local. Note that the Default set may be edited as well (so the possibility for totally "customising" - or screwing-up - the appearance of the program is there). Users at lower levels of access are denied all this fun, sadly!

2) All such as these can now be edited to suit your purposes:-

Form labels
Form (and browser) titles
Log messages
Menu bars
Note-taking messages
Push-button captions
Tool texts (hints) ... etc.

... plus, of course, all of the data (which is - or can be - your own stuff, anyway).

3) Changes may be made at a Captions browser. This is where you need to know which one you're looking for! However, a serious user might just like to go ahead and translate (change, edit ... whatever) the whole lot! Once you've done one or two, it's easy enough to get the hang of.

At the moment, the Captions look-up table (datafile) sits at 1,975 records (with more yet to come), so if anyone feels a need to wade through that lot with a view to translating it all ... well, it shouldn't take too long.

It's probably not as daunting as it sounds, as many of the captions are only one or two short words (and the maximum caption string is 32 characters long). About four days solid work for anyone with language skills, I reckon!

As mentioned before, translating the Help file (300 records with text narratives) would be a major tour de force. I may simply "leave as is" (as users at a suitable level of access can edit it anyway) or perhaps add another memo field for users to play with as they see fit.

But at the moment I see no (easy) way to be able to translate (or edit) the formats of the 132 preformatted "legacy" reports that the system still retains (in fact, "hand-coding" may be the only route open to me there). So users may simply have to live with those. There are also 70 (at last count) "hand-coded" reports that could be candidates for alternative caption options, but (as anyone reading this can no doubt tell), it all takes time.

If anyone wants to have a look at the system in its current state, feel free to get in touch, and I would be happy to zip up a "beta" distro. I mention this as I notice downloads being ... er, downloaded from this site, but point out that (although it still looks more or less the same at first glance) the program mechanisms have changed quite substantially as a result of all this tweaking and general surgery!

Having said all that ... now it's time for a cup of tea, then back to work!

Another couple of months have passed since the last update and I have been plodding on during that time.

The Captions look-up table (datafile) now sits at 3,170 records but it seems there are about 600 duplicates. So rationalising that needs to be the next step!

Although the basic metaphor (Job Record, Parts Record, PM Record etc., etc.) remains in place, as does the traditional look and feel, during what has been quite an extensive review I have added (or enhanced) a fair number of relatively minor features aimed at improving ease of use and productivity.

As always when grubbing around in the code, a few (?) bugs have been unearthed (some of which I would classify as howlers that must have been laying there dormant for a number of years). Naturally, these have been zapped where found ... but don't worry, new, fresh, bugs have been planted in their place. Ha, ha.

OK, that's it for now. It's wet outside (again), so I may as well crack on!

"OK, that's it for now. It's wet outside (again), so I may as well crack on!"

It rained here last Wednesday, you may have read in the news, was quite fierce, but only for one day and now it is back to normal.

Yes, I heard about that. Bad news.

But are the drains any better in Jeddah these days ... or is the Bride of the Rea Sea still floating on a lake (or two) of [censored]?

For over 2 years the roads have been blocked whilst they put in the drainage pipes, massive 6 foot diameter pipes, with tunneling equipment unfortunately they forgot to connect the road to the pipes.

Let's hope they remembered to connect the sewers.

The sewers have to remain open, breeding grounds for mosquito's, dengue fever and the rest, but only in the poor area's of course

Bit of trouble with the scanner, got some aspirators for trial. The warning label goes as follows, "Caution, before operating the this unit Certainly you are the bolt (Two, hex bolt) That the fixing the pump in this bottom"
Surely there must be a load of technical translation positions available in the East, or do they not care as long as they are selling the equipment?

Or even one of the many free translators available on line.

But what we are all wondering is why are you guys buying stuff like this at all?

BTW ... how's the users' manual (I won't mention the service manual and parts list)?

Not buying, this is back-door demonstrations, deals done between departments and supplies, once they try to purchase that is were we step in and refuse if all the items are not available, service manual, circuit diagrams, although in this unit there are only pressure gauges and switches plus a motor. I don't like to deal with 'brokers' and that gives me another chance to reject the equipment. Lack of after sales care.

How can you avoid dealing with them? Unless, that is, the "system" out there has changed since I left!

Meanwhile ... what's any of this to do with my software project?

OK, back to the project ...


Yes, that much is true, but (having taken a closer look) I now realise that the context of captions may vary as they apply in various cases. That is, to various objects (such as menu bars, form labels, browse titles, text in summary outputs or reports ... and all the rest).

And as the impetus for all this effort was a suggestion to have the system accept labelling in languages other than English, who knows what nuances may apply! So, although some rationalisation may be sensible, it won't reduce the amount of apparent duplication by much.

All that implies that anyone wanting to rescript (another word that I may have just invented) the captions in their entirety will be tasked with entering (or editing) something like 3,000 records. These are often just a single word, whilst others amount to a string of four or five words.

All that may not be as daunting as it first appears, though, as such an endeavour would be surely attempted in easy stages. That is, one cup of tea at a time!

Having recently spent what has sometimes felt like an unhealthy amount of time on it, I hope to have the latest revision of the famous TaskMaster program ready to be reissued soon.

As anyone who has ever been involved with software projects will know, these things are never truly "finished". At best you simply get them to a stage whereby they are good enough to ship. At worse you simply give up ... or even bin them!

Anyway, although other self-imposed deadlines have come and gone, I now feel sufficiently on the home straight (the last lap, whatever) to declare that I shall have done enough by the end of the month (year, decade)!

During excavations of the code, I have come across (and hopefully remedied) a few mistakes. Some of them must have been laying there since the before the dawn of the present century. One in particular affected the algorithms involved in PM scheduling. It was a bit esoteric (and probably rarely used, if at all), but would have produced incorrect results. For which I can but apologise. After all, it has to be right, or else what's the point of it all!*

Now I am wondering how best to refloat the thing. In the jargon, it must still be classed as Beta - especially as there have been so many changes that conflicts (aka daft bugs) are bound to have crept in. So (rather than ask Huw to paste it up in the Downloads section just yet), I believe I should zip it off to a few of my loyal users first, to see how they get on.

What I need is for the program to be tested ... threshed about, even ... so I may have a go at fixing the bugs, responding to comments about usability, and adding any worthwhile features as may be suggested ... and once all that has been taken care of, get it republished properly, as it were.

If anyone else would like to have a go, feel free to get in touch via PM or email.

* As Niklaus Wirth (the creator of Pascal) said:- "In our profession, precision and perfection are not a dispensable luxury, but a necessity"!

TM 0912 is being sent out to certain loyal users for testing and comment before I ask Huw to tack it up for general availability.

I notice there have continued to be downloads of the previous version. This is a shame really as although superficially the "same", the new effort has been extensively re-worked, with many detailed improvements, extra databases etc.

Not to mention the user-configured captions facility (see the posts above), plus simplification of the "risk-based PM model". It is effectively a new (well, let's say refreshed) program. And although earlier ones can still be supported, they are now effectively obsolete.

Anyone having an interest in trying the latest program need only to get in touch. Especially as I am looking for thoughtful testers willing to provide feedback!

I’ve just had cause to venture back in time twenty years. Yes, how amazing (sad?) is that?

I expect I’ve told the story before (?) about how Chacko Zard and Boboy Legara knocked up a database system in Riyadh to meet the MOH’s famous MAMISS standard after successfully being awarded one of the notorious (back then, that is) "regional biomed maintenance contracts" [long sentence].

Although they had produced quite a reasonable system in an amazingly short period of time, I think it would be fair to say they had reached a state of "writer’s block" until I came along with my Tronomed demo disc, plus a few ideas of my own. Most of which were noted on my trusty (then) Z88, by the way [wish I still had it ... remember PipeDream ... might have to fish one out from eBay).

Looking at it all again now, it is gratifying how right we got the underlying principles. But (as I keep saying) maintenance is maintenance, after all. The basic structure of many of the database elements (equipment codes, parts stock numbers etc.) remain essentially the same as those I still use today.

For the life of me, I can’t remember where I got that 5.25” Tronomed demo disc from. But the "Tronomed EM/dBS Engineering Management System" was released way back in 1987 by dPC Consultants of Fountain Valley in California (they later sold out to some other company). Looking at it again just now (under good old DOS, of course), I would say that it would still be useful today.

Only later did I develop sufficient dBASE skills myself to be able to (attempt to) reverse engineer the program. But in fact I never did, as we (I) went on to develop variants of Boboy’s original code over the years, according to where I was (and what I was doing) at the time.

So ... does anyone have a fully enabled example of Tronomed hidden away some place? And (or) any other "classic" equipment database program, for that matter? Cash is (or, at least, could be) waiting!

I’ll save reminiscences about PM procedures (that is, how we approached them) for another day ... but suffice to say, "there’s nothing new under the sun"!

But (lastly) I may as well mention also that I'm looking for programs "of our type" for the Psion Series 3a PDA's (oh yes, another classic) and even (and dare I say it) the Psion Organiser II (outed in 1986 and still going strong ... indestructible, in fact)!

What's all this got to do with the "New Project"? Well, a guy [a member of this forum, I should add] has asked me to put together a "how to get started guide" (which look like becoming a series of guides), and I was just checking the "history" to figure out how (or why) some of the design decisions were taken!

I've been meaning to post an update for a while. The latest issue of TM is "out there" with selected users (that is, those who I am aware of), but feedback has been, shall we say, slight.

If anyone wants to have a play, and act as a Beta tester, feel free to shout.

Meanwhile, I've noticed a number of snafu's myself, and put these right.

If I don't hear anything more after ten days or so, I shall ask Huw to tack up TM 1001 (the latest revision) in the Downloads section of the forum.

Meanwhile, I want to move on and spend a bit of time on data importing routines, but I'm planning to open a few thread on that topic.

Just to let it be known that Huw has kindly tacked up the fruits of my recent labours in the Downloads section.

As usual, feedback, suggestions and bug reports are welcome ... by PM or email.

I have noticed that a major SNAFU occurs in the TM download currently available from this site (TM 1002). Simply put, it looses the stock number at the top parts slot on the Jobs Records form. No folks, this is not meant to be a "feature", but is a dumb mistake for which I can but apologise. Naturally, I will sort it out when I next find the time to sit down for a coding session.

Meanwhile, I may as well mention that recent minor revisions have included the automatic creation of the Notes and Diary datafiles if these are not found during start-up (that is, by deleting these files you can effectively clear them of data).

And on the back-burner is an idea or two about the need to be able to sync updated data between systems on more than one PC. Not as easy as you may think, and it will need more than a few cups of tea to get right.

Sorted! (it took me just under an hour to run the bug to ground)

If anyone has been affected by this bug, let me know if you need the latest update.

Meanwhile, I'll leave my semi-conscious RAM to mull over how to tackle the "data syncing" problem. No doubt one night soon I shall awake (about 03:15, usually), bursting with some crazy scheme or other. That's what happens when you drink too much tea before crashing out!

I now have two buddies who have expressed interest in having a go at Spanish labels (see my post under this thread dated 27-Sep-09). Although, having said that, I don't hear from them very often. Perhaps they have lost the will to live on this one (if so, that is a feeling I know only too well)!

Let them remain anonymous (after all, they know who they are), but suffice to say that one toils away in Mexico, the other in Uruguay. But it's kind of interesting that Spanish has been the only language of interest (as far as I am aware).

Meanwhile, there are three things on the "to do" list now:-

1) The "revised data syncing" issue mentioned above.

2) The addition of a "log on/log off" feature on the Jobs Records form.

3) Investigation of network working.

Regarding item 2) ... the idea here is when working at the workbench (and perhaps, if folk are anything like me, working on two or three items at once) being able to "clock on and off" of a particular job at any time in order to ultimately arrive at an accurate cumulative total of the time spent on the job (for onward transmission for billing records, etc.). Not everyone needs this level of complexity so it will need to be configurable. That is, able to be switched on or off as need be.

Regarding item 3) ... as I don't have my own network, and rarely have one available to me when working at other folk's premises (and don't really have an opportunity to "play" then, anyway), I'm now hoping to get TM lodged on a friend's server to see how it goes, as it were. Then if further tweaks are found necessary (and I already have a few clues about that), that may well be worthwhile effort.

The "good" thing about laying out my plans on here, for all to see, is that it then helps to enforce some sort of discipline on my own part about actually getting down to it and doing the work!

Following a happy weekend of coding (well, most of the time) ... here is the current status of my endeavours:-

Item 1) have made a good start on this one.

Item 2) was an easy revision and was completed some time ago.

Item 3) nothing yet on this one.

Regarding the "data syncing" routine ... the idea here is to be able to easily update data in various directories on a master computer from work done using other computers (a laptop taken to site, for instance). My implementation uses a simple (to the user) .zip file containing the latest data updates which can be passed as a packet to the master computer (via email attachment, memory stick, or whatever) and picked up for processing from there.

That may sound straightforward enough, but there's a fair amount of work needed to get that sort of thing working nicely.

I'm not sure when I'll find the time to carry this on. Unless I'm wide awake during the night (which happens from time to time)!

Following a lengthy (but enjoyable) session yesterday and last night (this morning) I believe I have this one cracked now.

I have used a simple method of sharing recently amended data between computers, such as may be needed (for example) after working from a laptop at a job site, and then updating a central computer back at base. It uses a straightforward .zip file named DataPack.zip that can be swapped between computers as an email attachment, on a memory stick, etc.

It sounds simple. But (as with all such things) it still took a while to implement, especially as we're talking about a lot of datafiles (in various directories), some of which are logical candidates for inclusion, whilst others are not. Automatically marking all amended records from selected datafiles, and gathering them into a single .zip file (and "unpacking" it all successfully at the receiving end) was great fun, naturally.

From avant-projet to Beta (?)

There is a software development strategy known as "Release Early, Release Often". Using this technique, developers release new (usually unstable and buggy*) revisions of their stuff as free downloads, counting on feedback from customers to provide Quality Assurance. A well known example of this was the development of the (now defunct) Netscape Navigator web browser.

Although the pressure to release new features quickly and grab "mind share" ahead of your competitors may have disastrous effects on software quality, it has resulted in an unprecedented rapid pace of innovation in general. Also, if you waited until your software was "perfect", no-one (but yourself) would ever see it!

So, incremental development it has to be!

Or, put another way ... Version 3 is usually the one to go for.

* Oh, yes!

Can't see the wood for the trees...

Whenever I release software, I am amazed at the bugs found.

Simply because the project is viewed from someone else's perspective, I guess.

Yes, yes.

It's not so easy these days to force users (many and various, hopefully) to follow the same "logical paths" that you (the developer) would naturally follow. That's when things get tripped up, in my experience.

In short, users often do what appear to be daft things. As in, "why would anyone want to do that, I wonder"?

Needless to say, sequencies of data input (for example) was easier to enforce in the Good Old Days (that is, of DOS).

Ok, who got some new graphics then? and why are they not available to all.... smacks of elitism I say

It just goes to show ... well, something worthy of a PhD dissertation, most likely. Something in the vein of:-

Text based (eg, UNIX, DOS et al) database interfaces were entirely adequate, and (it may be argued ... and I do) probably more efficient than contemporary GUI-based ones. So why does everyone insist on having what they (in their led-by-the-nose manner) see as the "latest stuff"? As in, "it must be the Bee's Knees, coz it runs on Windows, and yer clicks on a mouse and all that" (or whatever)!

@Dave ... not heard of RHIP, then?

Hey, Dave!



PS: it's Bank Holiday Monday here in the Old Country, Mate. Do you have them out there?

Ok Mr Smarty Pants, I'll get the hang of this soonish......



it just may take a while............. I ain't really computer friendly truth be told....


No Bank Holidays as such but lots of public holidays. Alas, no more in Queensland until the Christmas break. All come in the first 6 months of the year so it is clear to all that WE NEED MORE !!

That's something we haven't (yet) discussed:-

What is the stuff of choice (PC's, mobile phones ... and all the rest)* of yer everyday chav, brogan (retard, whatever)? After all, they must have internet access (because of the porn).

Maybe a new thread required, there, Cobber.

* Don't tell me:- whatever was going cheap (as in, nicked) down the pub!

I'll get back to you on this one, 'tis late, well for me anyway...

more on the 'morrow

21:45 by my reckoning.

Don't worry, Neil will be back on here soon (following his nap). 14:45 in Jeddah.

And, lastly, less anyone gets the idea that such lovely folk as those we have mentioned are found only in the UK or Oz, why not checkout these as well:-

Ah beng (Singapore/Malaysia)
Bogan (Australia and New Zealand)
Chav (England)
Dres (Poland)
Flaite (Chile)
Guna or Mitra (Portugal)
Jejemon (Philippines)
Naco (Mexico)
Ned (Scotland)
Skanger (Ireland)
Spide or Millie (Northern Ireland)
White Trash (United States)

... to name but a few. Oh, Brave New World!

Meanwhile (for anyone who may be interested), the latest revision of the famous TaskMaster program is available for download here.

As always, if you download it and give it a go, I shall be interested to receive feedback, bug reports, and suggestions for futher development etc.

Having been involved recently in a parts stock-taking exercise, I came to the realisation (somewhat belatedly, let it be said) that stock-numbered items can be located in more that one location (that is, within any given "enterprise"*).

So I shall have to think about adding (yet) another database related to the main stock numbers datafile, listing alternative locations in my usual style:-

Store (place, location)
Row
Rack
Shelf
Bin

Obviously, in cases where Store is "Tech's car", the Row, Rack etc. will not apply. So I may give a bit of thought to adding a Tub (and/or Box or Kit) field as well.

* Oh yes, I can do Baboon Speak with the best of 'em!

We use the top level of a similar structure as "stock room" however a stock room can itself be defined by a car rego number, a hospital workshop or indeed a regional office. From there down a similar pattern is followed of shelf/rack/bin/etc if that is appropriate.

The trick, of course, once the system is set up is actually using it and getting everyone to keep it up to date. If you crack that particular problem please let me know the details.

Thanks for that feedback, Dave.

As may be well known (in some quarters, at least), my system allows the user to set up his (her) own field labels (Stock Room, Location ... or Store?), as it strives to be universally applicable.

But (in general) Store->Row->Rack->Shelf->Bin has always worked well enough. For me, at least.

Regarding your second point:- yes, easy enough when we are talking about a single tech (eg, myself, in my preferred mode of working) ... but, when others are involved - that's where "leadership" comes into play. Threats, appeals, cajoling, cussing ... whatever it takes!

When I'm in charge (and I'm not, these days), I have found that in cases of "poor" accountability (husbandry, whatever) in terms of parts usage, tools and test equipment held against signature, etc. - hitting guys in the pocket usually gets them to ... er, buck up a bit!

But having someone independently carry out a rolling or periodic physical stock-take helps. One metaphor that I use is to have folk imagine piles of twenty pound (dollars, Dong ... whatever) notes piled up in those stock bins (and then imagining those same amounts deducted from their wage packets).

On a personal note, these last seven years has seen me having to, shall we say, "fit in" with the policies and procedures (if, indeed, such grand terminology can be applied without blushes) of others. In terms of stock control (let's concentrate on that) these have ranged from Poor to ... umm, Pathetic. To be honest (and as others in similar circumstances must have found), it has not been easy to regress into "systems" far worse than those I was using twenty-odd years ago! The "answer" here, I have found, is to make an attempt to win over co-workers (and, yes, that has failed, by and large, in every case) and then to (shrug, and) simply carry on, working as far as possible within my own little bubble, making improvements as I go along, as time allows. What happens when I leave? Frankly, should I care?

Geoff, we downloaded 'maintenance parts bin' from 'freedownloadcentre' excellent software to track spare parts, however without a dedicated 'clerk' keeping the parts up to date can be a hassle. I am lucky here that I have a lot of very responsible techs who take pride in their work.

Hello Neil.

Yes. That one looks alright. Notice, however, that it is shareware on a 15-day trial. Let's hope that it gets downloaded by anyone else who may be interested.

Meanwhile, more on "last seven years experiences":- many places I have been have spent £££ plenty on "all singing, all dancing" systems - and yet still failed to use them effectively (using, of course, all the usual excuses). Many [censored] stock-control modules have been tolerated because they were supposed to be able to link in to other [censored] systems - "business management", "asset management", "customer management" ... and all the rest.

[censored] piled upon [censored], I'm afraid to say.



Yes ... that's the Real Answer. As it always has been.

Now, I fear I may regret asking this but.........

HM Armed Forces would, I would imagine, have a very strict system of stock control (not that a few guns don't go awol occasionally ) so how is that managed? Perhaps there are lessons to be learn there 'though the idea of the "guard house" may not fly in the NHS or else where.

Stock control is stock control. You either do it (as you would expect, in HM Forces, for example) ... or you don't. I'll leave you all to provide your own examples of those in the second category.

In relation to HM forces stock control there is a few big stores all over the world with lots of bits in them with a NatoStock Number (NSN). They are all linked and should work. Have to add that as they keep changing the NSN they do lose stuff. They also have a few store men/women to administer this process.

We are using a simple excel spread sheet for our stock control. Developing a Infopath program so it can be used by all on the server.(alternative is the access database with a few macro's)

Billy

Now that the NHS is much larger than HM Forces ... there can be "no excuses", then, Billy.

I hate to disagree ... but I doubt that you can find too many examples of NSN's that "keep changing". Badly categorised (classified) in the first place, perhaps (especially the medical kit ... which, in my day at least, was catalogued by idjits).

Meanwhile ... there's not much wrong with a simple approach using Excel. "Do something simple, rather than do nothing complicated".

* Other spreadsheets (but not too many) are available.

If only everyone had that adage KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid).

The other thing that a simple approach to this problem means that anyone with basic knowledge can administrate it.

(and there are many more where that one came from)!

In the hope that I shall be "flamed" for resurrecting* "old threads" ... ... and with regards to the opening page of this topic ...

The latest version of TaskMaster is available, and I shall be posting it to Huw for him to tack up in the Downloads section shortly (tomorrow, Monday, I should imagine).

As usual there have been a number of incremental improvements and bug fixes. But I want to get it published before embarking upon the next planned change (which is the addition of an Invoicing feature).

As always, if you download it and give it a go, I shall be looking forward to receiving feedback, bug reports, and suggestions for further development, etc.

* But it is, after all, yet another "Slow News Sunday"!

Just a quick note to anyone who has downloaded the latest revision of TM that Huw kindly tacked up the other day:- I have noticed a snafu (now corrected) that will prevent the sending of Job and/or Service Reports to output.

As many will know, this is one of the problems with "development":- something gets changed way over here, with "unexpected consequences" hiding way over there, patiently waiting to laugh out loud when you least expect it (if you see what I’m saying). In short, one bad call is all it takes, unfortunately.

More waffle (for those fans of waffle who I just know are out there) ... other phrases that come to mind include:-

1) One step forward then two steps back.
2) Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
3) If you're not seeking perfection, why carry on experimenting?
4) No progress without the pain.
5) Our policy is one of continuous improvement.
6) Just one more tweak.
7) Can we make it do this? etc., etc.

... you know, stuff like that!

Apologies to anyone affected by this. I shall ask Huw to replace the download with a corrected file shortly. But in the meantime, if anyone needs the fix, feel free to get in touch by email, PM, whatever.

Done and dusted now.

Thanks Huw.

You're welcome

I'm spending some time on my database projects at the moment, and (harping back to the original posts to this thread) I'm wondering if anyone has had any joy with the Captions look-up table (datafile)?

Then later on, if I've still got the Will to Live, I really must put the Perfect PM issue to bed, once and for all!

OK ... after two months of pretty intensive coding sessions (and having had the thing very much "open, and on the table" so to speak), I hope I am getting near the stage of asking Huw to tack up revision 11.05 of the famous (?) TaskMaster program.

But before I do that, and in order to (hopefully) spare myself the embarrassment of howling* bugs becoming immediately apparent, it would be nice if someone out there would be willing to take a look at the beta.

PM or email if you're interested, and I'll zip up an email attachment for you.

Meanwhile, I would discourage anyone from downloading (what is now) the earlier version from the Downloads section of this forum until 11.05 is lodged there. There have been many detailed improvements (and, yes, bug fixes) since 11.03.

That's all for now.

* Do bugs howl? They're usually a bit more sneaky than that, I find. Like when they wait a few months (or more) to make their presence known.

Just to let folk know that 11.05 is now available for downloading.

As usual, it would be nice to hear* from anyone who encounters any problems, finds any bugs, or has any good ideas for further development.

* Email preferred.

OK, a daft bug has already come to light on 11.05.

If you call "Recent reports" using Alt+6 all you will ever get is a blank form. Not good.

Luckily the fix for this is an easy one:-

1) Close TM
2) Go to the TM\Data directory
3) Delete XTM_Rcnt.*
4) Restart TM
5) Answer [OK] to the "Missing Datafile" message
6) Let TM go about its business

Then (once you have called a couple of Reports at Alt+4) Alt+6 should surprise you with pleasing results!

Mea culpa as usual. But these things happen (and no doubt there will be a few more). Meanwhile, the offending datafile structure has now been corrected for inclusion in the next revision.

Onward!

Well, 'tis that time of year once again (yes, it's the Winter Solstice tomorrow) ... about which I have nothing more to add than what I said four years ago:-


Meanwhile, I notice that folk continue to steadily download the famous TaskMaster program. Very good. But I should advise that a revision is in the offing which includes a fair number of detailed improvements. I had been hoping to have it all done by this time but it's still not quite ready yet. If anyone wants to try it "as is" just get in touch, otherwise please be patient until in gets tacked up in the Downloads section on here.

Just to announce that Huw has kindly tacked up the latest offering to be unleashed upon the unsuspecting world.

Users of earlier versions (even of the DOS variety) may be interested to learn that I have incorporated (what is hopefully) an easy method of successfully "copying across" old data into the latest database structures. It worked OK on my old stuff (some of which, as you may imagine, goes back to the dawn of time, PM-wise at least).

I am pondering what to do next with the TaskMaster project.

In recent years various people have suggested things like:-

1) A "freshening" (of the appearance, presumably) of the whole program
2) A re-write in MS Access
3) A re-write for mobile platforms (Android and such)
4) Re-configuration into a web-based application

All those points (and others) may have merit, but to carry it forward in any shape or form would take an investment in time (that mainly), new hardware and (possibly) software that I may not be able to summon from my own (limited) resources.

So I am looking for ideas, suggestions and/or proposals ... but beyond that, possible collaboration and indeed someone (or a group) willing to take on the whole thing, and develop it further.

If someone wants to make an offer for the source code, then feel free to do so (eg, via PM). The code has been written in MS Visual FoxPro 9.0 so you would need to have that (database programming language) available. Up until now I have been happy to publish the program on a free-of-charge basis, but be clear that the source code is the result of thousands of hours of work, and cannot be simply given away.

If I fail to generate any interest along those lines, and in the absence of some form of sponsorship to carry on with maintenance and development myself, then the program shall probably just be left "as is" and simply allowed to wither on the vine.

I have just noticed the 1,000th download of TM.

And I must say that I'm truly amazed.

Further to my post of 17th April, what I have decided to do is this:-

In order to preserve the legacy of TM, and offer a route forward (to be followed or not, as the case may be) I am putting together a simple package comprising what I am calling the TDK (TaskMaster Development Kit).

Armed with the TDK, anyone with MS Visual FoxPro 9.0 available to them shall be able to access all original files (programs, forms, datafiles etc.) and fiddle about with (er, I mean develop) them to their heart's content.

I am thinking in terms of a number (less than ten, I should imagine) of .zip files (TDK_01, TDK_02 etc.) that may be shared as email attachments. I hope to have a preliminary set ready within a few days.

If anyone is interested in having those files to play about with, please get in touch.

Later on, and once any initial "teething problems" have been ironed out, I may ask Huw to post the TDK at the Downloads page (if it is agreed that that would be a good idea).

Meanwhile, and as always, I'm open to suggestions "from the floor" ...