Exhale

A Smoke at the Sun, in the Sun

I was reminded today of the six stages of debugging. Anyone who has developed software will immediately recognise them.

1. That can’t happen.
2. That doesn’t happen on my machine.
3. That shouldn’t happen.
4. Why does that happen?
5. Oh, I see.
6. How did that ever work?.

I've spent pretty much all my time today variously between one and four. I've not touched five once. I expect to get to six eventually.

To be more serious, the problem is not really with my software at all, but how the site is configured on remotes servers over which I have very little jurisdiction. There are so many 'black boxes' today that have to be relied upon to do the job intended. If one doesn't perform as expected then the biggest problem is actually proving so and getting someone to take responsibility for fixing it. This has been the task today. The behaviour is so damn weird though that it's been very hard to compile the evidence with which to make a case that would be taken seriously!

To make matters worse I've been trapped inside on a really beautiful day with the forecast for tomorrow quite dismal. I am beginning to take the weather just a little bit personally at the moment!!

I have had to take a few deep breaths myself today.