2002 Story Set
| Date: December 11, 2002 I thought it was time to document THE MEETING. It is held DAILY from 1:30-3 or so. After lunch is an interesting time to hold a meeting since a lot of people go out to eat. And then need naps. Some of us behave and walk or hit the gym. We need naps too. Others-----I can't say. Me? It's the gym, or else I am typing my brains out catching up. It's supposed to be the gym----- One thing can be said for software - a specification BEFORE you start is a really big help. It's called structured design. I am very big on structured design. I have been on projects done with and without. More success comes with. This is critical for big companies with lots of departments. At a startup, sometimes short cuts are taken. (We are all in the same building after all. Or most of us.) Are they really short cuts? Not really. But --- you go with what you've got. Of course, it helps to have the design close to being FINISHED (no strangling the engineers in the hallways - that should have already been done) before you begin to document it. It also helps if everyone agrees sort of just where we are going. That is seldom the case. If fact, I can't remember the last time----- This is especially true when you are writing a customer document for a new assembly language while they are still designing the language. Because if it is not designed, defined and agreed to when you start typing and generating validation software and all that jazz, you get to do it over again! And again! And again! You don't want to redo it too often - it can get boring. Of course, change is inevitable - since the hardware isn't finished being designed. (The new chip is in design synthesis - coming down the EDA-ASIC design flow I was teaching and documenting at Synopsys and before that at SIARC and before that at AMCC - an ASIC foundry at the time). To help this dynamic scenario, we decided to all get in a room so we could all get on the same page. In the afternoon. In a company that keeps candy around. (read - sugar). And when you are tired, sugar is the choice. I keep diet soda - and Tootsie Roll pops - handy. Or mints. Or Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate. I come in armed with reference books - 2 - 3 of them. And a pad of paper (nearly through one). A couple of pens. And some tissue. I come with a sweater I can remove since the room heats up. Because customers are in the halls, we keep the door closed - and it becomes stuffy. You are guaranteed a headache by the end of a 90-120 minute session! And I have the current part of the document that we are working on. Sometimes they have given me the current reference document for that section. Sometimes they haven't. (I am an orphan - not on the "engineering team".) This can be fun. It can lead to interesting questions. Sometimes I get totally confused. Sometimes, so do they. In some cases, we have syntax for an operation. (The rules for the format of the code.). And I can decipher the semantic rules. (The "you must do this before doing that" type of things.) In some, we have incorrect syntax. Because it's changed already. Or is still moving----- I can tell, because the validation code samples don't match what I started with. It's moving that fast. This is a first clue. Descriptions must be washed - changed from machine level code descriptions including bit patterns, into assembly-level pseudo English and operands. My job. Sometimes, the room resembles the tower of Babel. Usually we are well behaved. Usually. But a "hot topic" can set off the room and 3-4 different conversations can launch at once. And they do not talk softly. I can only write down one! I am getting good at grabbing code samples from the white board. Whenever they start scribbling. No matter how messy. Code, code, feed me code. Thank heavens I do know how to program at all levels! (Once you know one language, others are easier to pick up. And some tasks are consistent across machines. It's the format that alters. Not the existence.) And we have a "talking stick" that we sort of use to control things. It's the yellow marker. You see, we have banished the yellow and orange markers from the room, or at least from use to write on the boards. (Yellow on white simply does not show up.) We have thrown the fading worn out markers on the floor (Teaching trick. Actually, tossing them in a waste basket is preferred.) I have the lovely purple one secreted in my purse. I'm holding it captive. (I wear a lot of purple. It has been commented on.) (Women over 50 wear purple because it does nice things to their skin and at our age we need all the help we can get.) I deliberately wore gray and black today, glitter gray top and duster, black slacks and boots. Just to be different and throw them off. I was quick to point that out to my boss. He of the comment. (But then, purple is royal and I want to be treated like a queen....) We are opinionated and everyone in the room has no hesitation in expressing their views. This can be hilarious. Interesting, but hilarious. Sometimes someone has to grab the "talking stick" and bang the table for order. Sometimes it's me. They also think it is great fun to tell me that "there will be a change - it gets added to all of these [pages] - but you just have to write it once and drop it in. But we don't know what it is yet." laugh laugh. That's OK. Just somebody write it. In somewhat readable English. Or C code. I can do either. And give me sample code! (My mantra. When documenting a language, it helps to have useful samples. Or sometimes non-useful samples. Whatever!) At the end of about 2 hours, we stagger out to our various corners to grab sodas and more candy and recuperate and I race to type it all up while it is rattling around in my head. And sometimes rattling is a good description. I do TRY to get things written down. Details. Nuances. Etc. (They take great delight in telling me several times a day that they never read the stuff I type afterwards. Chuckle. Chuckle.) (But looming up is the need for them to read the final doc line by line, word by word. Ha! Ha! ) (I reminded them of this today. I'm not totally sure that sunk in but we had an actual moment of stunned silence.) I usually have a lot of "fixes" and editing to do. Sometimes I have new things to add. New sections that the manual needs. Other times I insist that we stay on the same level of clarity ---- because sometimes they are tired and want to take another shortcut. Can't do that. Need consistency. I am hunting guidelines. And programming restrictions. Little things that someone actually trying to use this new language to write something productive just might want to know! Sometimes it seems too basic, because, as we go, we are getting more expert in this new language. Must be careful of that. Because the customer seeing this for the first time, needs to get up to speed as fast as possible with few assumptions necessary. We are actually, in spite of all this commotion, very productive. We are actually, on quite good terms with each other. No one has been strangled in the parking lot. Not yet anyway! We are actually, in spite of the seeming chaos, nearly done! With this pass anyway. This is called FUN by the way. Dynamic. Challenging. Us geeks in Silicon Valley actually thrive on this stuff. See what you miss? Must go. Have to get ready for tomorrow's meeting. |
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