An Analyst's View of Programming

It's an odd thing, working as what's known as an "MI Analyst". What's my job about? Getting the best information out fastest with the smallest amount of maintainable code. A large chunk of my value to the company is my understanding of the data tables, the meaning and reliability of the data in them (what are the values and meanings of that flag?) and the processes by which the tables are produced. So I can interpret or avoid some of the anomalies ("use that table instead of this one for that exercise, it's faster and the data is, errr, more reliable"). Another large chunk is the ability to translate business-speak into data and code, suggest other things the user might want to look at, and remind them of the various odditities of the systems. The business doesn't set a lot of store on my technical competence as a programmer (in the sense of design+coding). Which seems an odd judgement, as the better I am at it, the better I work.

I have a very different focus compared to a full-time developer (code hacker), let alone a full-fledged LISP junkie. I'm not really interested in neat programming tricks to solve a problem in number theory. I am interested in how to use a language to help me achieve a task. I'm not the guy whose code uses bit-arithmetic - I'm the guy who writes copious comments and gives his variables meaningful names. For me, the languages are tools I use to get the job done, not something I think it's cool to know more about. The day I have a problem (and far more importantly an IT environment environment) best solved in LISP will be the day I learn LISP.

You'll notice something here. I have enough background to know that LISP exists, what it does well, how it differs from YACL++ (Yet Another C++-style Language), and what kinds of problems it might be good at solving. That kind of background knowledge is, to me, one of the things that separates a senior from a regular analyst. It's why I advise the young 'uns that they must scan the manuals. I scan the manuals so I know what the tools can do, not to memorise it all. Then when a new task comes along, I have an idea that this or that tool may have a feature that make my life easy. (No. Using the internet won't do. It encourages a script-kiddie attitude and works best for very specific tasks. It doesn't really work for a general problem.)

One more thing. Notice that I said I put lots of comments and used descriptive variable names. Anything can be done with proper style, and should be. It doesn't matter if I'm writing a little bit of SQL or a VBA class with a bunch of methods, I want to do it so it looks the part and makes me look the part. Call me shallow and superficial, but it leads to good code. And that ain't bad.

Holiday In The Algarve (7): Praia de Beliche

Some of those west coast beaches barely exist at high tide and the Praia de Beliche, just up the road from Sagres, is one of them. Instead I wandered around the headland and saw some more guys practicing the Algarve Extreme Fishing, which must be done from cliff edges many, many dozens of metres above sea level. I had lunch on an hotel balcony, photographs and details of which I forgot to gather partly because I was Having An Emotion at the time, and partly because I was greatly distracted and amused by a retired Dutch businessman and his wife spinning the waitress / manager (Elena, I think, who taught English) a line about shooting a commercial and how she should be in it. I don't think she believed it any more than I did. And, yes, I did chat to the Dutch couple and confirmed they were just having fun.

Click on the flower pictures, because those are full-size and you need to see the details.

Finally, I defy you not to see what I saw in this...

Woof!

Holiday In the Algarve (6): Praia de Monte Clerigo

Another beach on the west coast, though this one is a lot easier to get to, has parking by the beach, and even an actual village.

Get away from the bit right in front of the bar and car park, and it gets more interesting. The guys standing on the headland are fishing. As are the guys standing on the rocks. Turns out that fishing from the edge of a cliff into water sixty feet below you and fishing is quite the thing to do on the west coast, as some more photographs at another beach will show.

Saturday Stroll, Amsterdam

I like Amsterdam, and not for the reason you do. I'm not allowed mood-altering substances, remember? No-one bombed the centre during any of the wars, so it still looks like it did a few hundred years ago when the Dutch were as rich and middle-class as it got. My routine is to wander around, have lunch, visit a record store, the American Book Centre, get afternoon tea, wander some more and get supper. This is the front of the cafe, on the Utrechtsstraat, which I thought I had collected a card for but it wasn't.

 It gets much cuter inside, where there is a tiny courtyard at the back.

Just up the road is the quite wonderful Concerto record store, over three fronts and with a basement. It has vinyl 12" for serious DJ's and buffs and a decent mix of most other genres. I picked up three Eric Dolphy and two Tomatito CD's. I know I could have got them on Amazon and maybe cheaper, but it's not the same as browsing the bins.  If my companions are very unlucky, I spend a while in Art Multiples on the Keizergracht: it has at its own boast the largest collection of postcards in Europe and I don't doubt it. This time I picked up thirty to make a couple of collages.

 

Afternoon tea on the pavement at Goodies, followed by a stroll with swift dives in and out of art galleries in the Jordaan.  Most of it looks something like this. Everyone who can't afford to live in the centre on one of the canals - which is most of the human race now - wants to live in the Jordaan.

If you're wondering where the foodie photographs are, the Dutch have been adamant about maintaining the simplicity of their snack foods: it's basically eggs, ham and cheese in various permutations, and apple tart with cream. But in the end, who cares? The centre of the town barely changes, and may be the last famous town left in the world with as relaxed a feeling. Just walking round it is enough to clear the soul.

The Beach At Zandvoort

The Eastern edge of the Netherlands is one very long beach, and in all the visits I've made there, mostly just for a weekend, I have never walked along those sands. So this time we went out there: Utrecht to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Zandvoort direct. The station is a terminus really is about a hundred metres from the promenade, reminding me of Sheerness. (Don't ask. Childhood.) The beach is wide and flat, and makes for a big wide sky. It's not the prettiest place in the world,

but it had the atmosphere of those Edwardian beach paintings, and it really did have waving flags

There are about twenty cafes and restaurants along the beach, all numbered, and they all looked good. We stopped for a coffee and ice cream at this one, which my intuition told me might look better on the inside...

 ...as indeed it did.

The Griftpark, Utrecht

Utrecht is famous for a half-finished Cathedral and a very old university. Nobel prize-winner Gerard t'Hooft works there. It also has a fine example of what the Dutch can do with a poisoned industrial site when they decide to get serious. It's called the Griftpark.

Okay, the Good Burghers of Utrecht did not put the street art there, but someone did and it's not half bad. There were at least two groups of people - okay, attractive young women - exercising that evening, look closely at the second photograph up and you will get the general idea if not many details.

There's also a restaurant, Griftpark 1, which I really should have taken some food snaps from. If you're in Utrecht for the evening, go eat there, especially in summer. You will be pleased you did.

Gumball 3000

On my way into work yesterday I passed through the Covent Garden Paizza. And saw, well, this...

It was the pre-start show for the Gumball 3000 rally. The other day our managers did a thing called a "Mood Survey" to see how we felt about a) the day ahead when we arrived at work, b) the day we'd had when we left work, c) the future. We weren't too sure about the future, but the present got quite high marks. When they asked, I said that one reason I had voted NO to the future was the upcoming office move. It was a quality-of-life thing, I said. Because they don't hold pre-start shows for the Gumball Rally in the City.