I made it!

I made it!
There is a FORTH-Society Meeting in about two weeks, and the goal is to present this new tool at this meeting. For this meeting the Beta-Version should be ready, and today the Alpha-Version should have been ready.

I promised to have it ready today, so there is enough time for the people who present this new tool to get acquainted with it.

After a lot of tests I got it ready. I made it! "Normal" people cannot imagine what a gorgeous feeling it is to have completed a software project, even if it is only part of it. I am pretty sure you know this joy when a software does what it should do, even if it is only a little or marginal part of a bigger project. So say a praise with me! A praise with me will help you with your next project, because I know how hard it is to get software development ready just in time!

Over all the years I have learned to meet endlines better and better. I worked self-employed, and when a customer came to me asking me if I can develop a special software for him, and I was sure I could, I got the order and started. My imagination was bright and I got a lot of ideas what I could put into this software to amaze my customer about what he got without asking for it. But I did behold this as my secret, never told it to the customer.

When the time came to have the ordered software ready, I abandoned a part of my imagination, and the more pressing the end date was, the more I abandoned, until there was only the part left over the customer wanted. It was great to have all these great ideas, but it was greater that - with the help of this special imagination - delivery was just in time.

It not always worked precisely, but it worked better and better. Remember to have a walk when you got stuck with a problem! Enjoy the fresh air - if you are lucky to work for a company which allows you to take in some oxygen from outside. If you have to stick in your cubicle, then you have no chance to get a solution easier and faster. You have to work overtime, and may be on the weekend to get it done. But, don't worry, if your company is paying overtime, then it does not make sense to solve a problem fast. Working to fast is not socially accepted, you will draw the anger from your colleagues, if not from the managers, too. This is one of the reasons that I preferred to work self-employed.

When I had my first job as engineer, I was ready with my work at noon. Not to bother my Boss I decided to do a walk to other departments, preferable to the library, and before finishing the workday, I helped my colleague to solve his problem he was sitting at the whole day (his vision was to be a physician, but his father had a Telecommunication Business, so he was ordered to study Communication Technology. He was seldom happy in his life, drinks helped him to deal better with his feelings, and he died in a young age with a liver disease).

Oh, I forget the main thing:
I really made it, and the email with the Alpha-Version of visualFORTH is on the Net now.