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Issue 25
Angie’s job’s on the line as she struggles to bring TEL Phase III in on time. Will she make it, or will Mike and Greg get the excuse they’re looking for?
 Monday
I’m a marked woman, and it feels horrible. As I expected, Greg soon found out that I’d given Bill Hamilton and the MD the information they’d used to sink his TEL Phase III delaying scheme. I’m now known as ‘Hamilton’s Mole’ (or, more insultingly, his ‘Moll’), and it’s obvious that Greg and Mike want me out. Nothing’s been said, of course, but the signs are all there - key meetings held when I’m away, important emails not cc’d to me, the lot. Carl and Denny have really stood up for me (bless ‘em), flatly refusing Mike’s suggestion that they ‘review Phase III resourcing’ (i.e. send me back to Depot screen layouts). Even more touching, Ed says that if I go, he’ll walk straight out with me. Ultimately though I’m on my own, and it doesn’t look good.
Tuesday
We’ve reached the trickiest part of Phase III (XSL transformations of XML queried from SQL Server) and - guess what - Mike’s reassigned my XML expert, Ed, to fix a minor VB problem on Load Adjustments. I hate XSL (it’s like something from the 1970s) and still haven’t fully grasped how it works with DTDs or Schemas. Without Ed, I’m really struggling, which is exactly what Mike wants - it’s just like the bad old days in Florence, with Kate waiting for me to screw up so she could tell Franca how incompetent I was. It’s hard to concentrate with someone breathing down your neck like that, but this time I’m not going to give in. I’ve worked hard on the XSLT module, and I’m pretty sure I’ve cracked it. Sorry, Mike, but you’re going to be disappointed!
Wednesday
Triumph! My transformations are working just fine, churning out HTML that’s so browser-neutral that even our Netscape-fixated Scandinavian partners email me to say how pleased they are with the results. Carl and Denny bravely make a point of saying that it’s all down to me, and Mike, surprisingly, goes along with it, even congratulating me publicly on my achievement. Perhaps I’ve misjudged him, because he seems genuinely pleased at my success. Denny organises an ‘Angie Masters Sharp Brackets’ celebratory drink, and as we all sit round the table it’s just like old times, right down to Ed boasting about his COM knowledge and C & D having a private argument about polymorphism. I drink slightly too much, Pete picks me up, and I go home very happy. Things may be all right after all.
Thursday
Paris for a TEL meeting. Everyone’s been trying out my transformation client, and as a result I’m something of a celebrity. XML aficionado Jurgen is particularly impressed, and asks how I managed to make it so flexible. I tell him the secret is accessing XML Schema information directly from DOM nodes, although I don’t tell him my other secret, which is that Ed showed me how to do it. He seems puzzled, but I’m sure he’ll grasp it eventually. Now that the client’s working we can push ahead for Phase III completion, which is just as well as there’s no slack whatsoever in the timescale. We should be able to make it though, and I’m quite proud to think that it’s largely down to me.
Friday
Back to the office, and I’m barely through the door when Carl hauls me aside and says there’s big trouble over my XSLT system. As Jurgen suspected, XML Schema support is a feature of MSXML 4.0, which is currently in beta and won’t be released in time for TEL III. We’ll have to go back and build a 3.0-based solution, which means we’ll miss the deadline. Denny and Jurgen are preparing a cover story about my code actually being a Phase IV demo, but this is a really bad screw-up, the worst I’ve ever made, and I know I’ll get serious flak for it. Sure enough, a few minutes later Mike says that Greg wants to see us straight away. As we walk to Greg’s office I say how sorry I am, and to my surprise Mike starts saying how sorry he is too. Then I realise what he means, and suddenly feel sick. I think I’m about to get the sack!
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Issue 25 - Contents
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Issue 1
Issue 2
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Issue 4
Issue 5
Issue 6
Issue 7
Issue 8
Issue 9
Issue 10
Issue 11
Issue 12
Issue 13
Issue 14
Issue 15
Issue 16
Issue 17
Issue 18
Issue 19
Issue 20
Issue 21
Issue 22
Issue 23
Issue 24
Issue 25
Issue 26
Issue 27
Issue 28
Issue 29
Issue 30
Issue 31
Issue 32
Issue 33
Issue 34
Issue 35
Issue 36
Issue 37
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