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Mar 15Classic WTF: The .NET Bridge to Nowhere
by in Feature Articles on 2015-04-06It's Easter, so we're taking a little break around here. Instead, enjoy this classic from Alex. Stories like this inspired "Remy's Law of Requirements": no matter what the requirements say, what the users actually want is Excel.
-- Remy
For as long as The City (as I'll call it) has supplied water to its residents, it has had one big headache called "The Annual Water Survey." Like residents of all large metropolises, The City's residents want to make sure the water they drink has only a miniscule amount of the "bad stuff," such as heavy metals and pathogens, and just the right amount of the "good stuff" -- chlorine, fluoride, etc. The water survey -- a 100-plus-page report that details test after test after test -- was their vote of confidence.
Compiling the survey had always been a long and tedious process. At first, field technicians would take samples from across The City, add drops of various indicator chemicals and record the results in their logbooks. From there, lab technicians would transcribe the numbers and use special slide rules to create tables of meaningful results. Typists would then compile the various tables into a giant binder and send it off for duplication.