THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700
rodwelch@pacbell.net


S U M M A R Y


DIARY: May 27, 2008 07:30 AM Tuesday; Rod Welch

Morris meeting review progress SDS Windows application.

1...Summary/Objective
2...Assembling SDS on C14 Failing to Run Pkzipc Correctly


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CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
SDS Windows Application Design Review Java Development Platform SDS

0903 -
0903 -    ..
0904 - Summary/Objective
0905 -
090501 - Follow up ref SDS 51 0000. ref SDS 50 0000.
090502 -
090503 -
090504 -
090505 -
090506 -
090507 -
090509 -  ..
0906 -
0907 -
0908 - Progress
0909 -
090901 - Morris showed an SDS record for work on 070517, ref SDS 40 0001, to
090902 - demonstrate progress on Medit, which he has accomplished so far with
090903 - the Java development platform, and running on a 64 bit processor using
090904 - his new computer with the Vista operating system.  Morris indicated
090905 - that the Java development platform yields a program that will run on
090906 - both 32 and 64 bit processors.
090908 -  ..
090909 - Work demonstrated today does not maintain data in the correct columns.
090910 - Morris corrected this during the meeting by switching to a fixed space
090911 - Courier font.  Fields for Reference pointers (above 04 line numbers)
090912 - and positioned in column 171 wrapped this data beyond the right screen
090913 - margin, rather than maintaining structure in column 171 required for
090914 - processing.
090916 -  ..
090917 - Morris asked for an explanation of what data goes on various columns.
090919 -  ..
090920 - An example is placing the record ID data in column 171 for citations
090921 - to SDS records, just discussed.
090923 -  ..
090924 - SDS column positioning is evident from opening an SDS record, like
090925 - this one, in the current version of Medit and observing the data
090926 - arrays.  The cursor position is shown at the bottom of the screen.
090927 -
090928 -     [On 080531 Morris began development of SDS record structure based
090929 -     on observing SDS records, discussed today. ref SDS 54 W197
090931 -  ..
090932 - Morris asked about columns for the doc log structure?
090934 -  ..
090935 - The letter, ref DIT 1 0001, submits this record to confirm
090936 - understandings from the meeting today.  Columns for the doc log format
090937 - are shown beyond column 80 below SDS reference records.
090939 -  ..
090940 - Morris discussed making anchors above narrative paragraphs invisible,
090941 - similar to HTML display.
090943 -  ..
090944 - Anchors and links are punctuation that extend traditional symbols,
090945 - like semicolons, commas, quotation marks, etc., that structure textual
090946 - narrative.
090948 -  ..
090949 - Morris noted people are not familiar with new punctuation, and will
090950 - resist a new way of working, which would restrain sales of an SDS
090951 - product on the market.  He asked why make punctuation using anchors
090952 - and links visible?  What useful purpose justifies making the new
090953 - punctuation visible?
090955 -  ..
090956 - Anchors are sometimes read and entered manually to expedite creating
090957 - links.  Looking at a record in another session shows where a link
090958 - should occur.  The same record can be opened in the current session,
090959 - and rather than take time to scroll through to the target location,
090960 - the link can be executed immediately using 0001 (or nearest anchor),
090961 - and then the anchor for actual target location can be typed over 0001.
090962 - In a typical day creating 100s of links, this saves a lot of time.
090963 - Similarly, the advantage of displaying link strings in SDS records
090964 - allows citations to refer to a specific passage, rather than to a
090965 - particular word or series of words.   The link number makes
090966 - investigating the citation in the Reference field fast and easy.
090968 -  ..
090969 - Morris has experimented with an interesting color scheme in the SDS
090970 - sample record reviewed today, for highlighting various fields.  We
090971 - should start with the current color scheme and then experiement with
090972 - other approaches
090974 -  ..
090975 - Morris discussed making line numbers a separate field.  This may
090976 - relate to supporting standard wordwrap and other wordprocessing
090977 - features.
090979 -  ..
090980 - Morris proposed making "paragraphs" the lowest level of structure in
090981 - the new version of Medit, rather than "lines" used in the current SDS
090982 - design.
090984 -  ..
090985 - These ideas relate to balancing requirements for structure to "manage'
090986 - free form narrative, and wordprocessing tools which people have
090987 - learned to use for creating free-form narrative with a professional
090988 - published appearance.  This issue was considered during the meeting
090989 - on 080207.
090991 -  ..
090992 - Structure in SDS records occurs from wherever someone starts typing.
090993 - The code knows that column 79 is the right margin, and when that
090994 - column is reached, the code checks for the column where the first
090995 - character in the line was entered, and makes that the left margin for
090996 - wrapping text on the next line.
090997 -
090998 -        Here is an example of starting on column 17, and when typing
090999 -        ends on column 79, the code wraps to column 17 on the next
091000 -        line.
091001 -
091002 -            Here is another example in this case starting on column 21;
091003 -            so people require no time to format or configure anything
091004 -            in order to create structure.
091006 -         ..
091007 -        Macro 49 does the paragraph justification word wrap stuff to
091008 -        avoid getting the line number field jumbled up; the basic
091009 -        scheme is explained, ref OF 3 4413, which includes evaluating
091010 -        outlining, and embeded citation.
091012 -         ..
091013 -        Macro 541 manages word wrapping for outlining list structures.
091014 -        ref OF 3 P45L
091016 -  ..
091017 - Outlining itself is managed by the code in macro 207 in 000000.
091018 - ref OF 2 SZ8O  Work last year on 070526 explains improvements, and the
091019 - scope of the current system of outlining. ref SDS 41 IU9H
091021 -  ..
091022 - Morris asked what happens if the code encounters outline structure
091023 - within a paragraph?  The code mostly makes the correct distinction,
091024 - but there still can be occassions that cause problems.  These are
091025 - handled by revising the narrative slightly to overcome the mixup.
091027 -  ..
091028 - Morris proposed today adding support for outlining of the form...
091029 -
091030 -        1.  Main heading.
091031 -        1.01  Subheading.
091032 -        1.01.1  Subheading.
091033 -        1.01.2  Subheading 2
091035 -  ..
091036 - This additional support would be helpful.
091038 -  ..
091039 - During the meeting today, Morris asked at various times for
091040 - explanations of various SDS features, and recalled having previously
091041 - requested this support.
091043 -  ..
091044 - Upon discussion today, Morris wants a product specification showing,
091045 - and only showing, how the current version is coded.  This follows up
091046 - his request on 071212 for an explanation of SDS records. ref SDS 44
091047 - KO4F
091049 -  ..
091050 - On 010924 Morris noted SDS has evolved from synergy between use and
091051 - product development, ref SDS 21 NK4J, which is difficult to accomplish
091052 - because demands to produce work product for customers limit time to
091053 - formalize documentation of evolving software code. ref SDS 21 YO4L
091055 -  ..
091056 - Morris commented again today that maintaining a current product
091057 - specification for a complex program like SDS is a lot of work, which
091058 - aligns with the report on 990525 that engineers don't like to write.
091059 - ref SDS 8 0966  Andy Grove concurred that literacy is a challenge for
091060 - engineers, citing experience at Intel, reported on 990527. ref SDS 9
091061 - 0682 Engineers have difficulty creating efficient documentation, even
091062 - with a lot of experts paid to maintain the specification and with
091063 - nothing else to do, reported by Gary citing experience on ISS, 020315.
091064 - ref SDS 27 QH3V
091066 -  ..
091067 - There is an extensive list of SDS features in the Subject Index.  This
091068 - provides pointers to find work history on all SDS program features.
091070 -  ..
091071 - On 040216 reviewed Gary's work on a software requirements
091072 - specification (SRS), ref SDS 36 007W, which is listed in Gary's record
091073 - on 040122. ref SDS 35 0001
091075 -  ..
091076 - Morris wants SDS installed on the c drive of his computer in order
091077 - see how records are designed, and understand functionality.
091079 -  ..
091080 - Worked on this in a separate record. ref SDS 52 M65O  Got the code to
091081 - run that produces a c version.  Decided to test this before doing the
091082 - installation.
091083 -
091084 -
091085 -
0911 -

SUBJECTS
Assemble SDS C Drive C14 Windows XP Fail Run Pkzipc Correctly Direct

1803 -
180401 -  ..
180402 - Assembling SDS on C14 Failing to Run Pkzipc Correctly
180403 -
180404 - After the meeting encountered a lot of problems using pkzipc.exe on
180405 - computer c14 to assemble the correct files for the c version.
180407 -  ..
180408 - The same tasks using the same code seems to run correctly on computer
180409 - c15.  This presented a mystery that consumed a million hours.
180410 - ref SDS 52 ZZ6F
180411 -
180412 -     [On 080601 similar failure calling dose command on c14 to get a
180413 -     list of files pending transfer to the Internet. ref SDS 55 I55N
180415 -      ..
180416 -     [On 080602 next day command to get list of files pending transfer
180417 -     to the Internet is now running correctly. ref SDS 56 I55N
180419 -  ..
180420 - Created an account for Morris, and started a few records so it is fast
180421 - and easy to look at a few things. ref SDS 53 0146
180422 -
180423 -
180424 -
180425 -
180426 -
180427 -
180428 -
180429 -
1805 -