"I like the way you talk."
Friday, January 15, 2010 at 8:15AM Since I can't seem to get usage and grammar out of my head this week, and since my head is kind of an odd place, anyway....
There is a reason for the way I am. Well, perhaps there are several reasons. Genetics, certainly. My father's parents were sticklers for grammar and spelling and all things related. The best part of all this was that English was not their first language. Not even their second language, in fact. Or maybe even third. Regardless, you did not want to play Scrabble with my Grandma Beatrice. Oh, no. And my dad loves the dictionary, too, as does his sister. Part of this mania, we simply cannot help.
So, that explains the affinity for it. As for why it matters so much to us? That's a little bit trickier. I did come up with what I thought was a decent reason for why it should matter to everyone else, a few years back. I was in an interview for a position as a Lotus Notes developer at a start-up, retail energy division inside a really, really big energy company. Yeah, that one.
The guy interviewing me (who did a spot-on impersonation of "Carl" from Slingblade), asked, "So, how did an English major end up writing code?" (This was when Lotus was using something like VB on the back-end. I don't know what it uses now, or even what it was called in those days. It will come to me, if I let it. Right now, I don't care.)
Anyway, I felt the interview slipping away with this question, and then I was inspired. I replied, "Well, it's all syntax, isn't it? I mean, if I don't dimension my variables at the beginning of the routine, my code won't work." Perhaps here I shrugged nonchalantly before continuing, "And if I don't get my subject-verb agreement correct, in theory, nobody knows what I'm talking about. I'm not communicating correctly."
I got the job. And just imagine if I hadn't.
No, on second thought, I don't see the point in imagining that.
Erin K. Rice
Oh. Lotus Script. That's what it was. Does anyone know if it's still in use? I could look it up, but it would be more fun if someone posted a comment, instead. Perhaps my old Slingblade buddy.
Reader Comments (4)
"'Spec I'd like some biscuits." Even though I'm not the buddy you reference, am I right?
"Yew got ennee musterd?"
How can I resist the call of the Slingblade reference? Yes, it is your old Slingblade buddy! I'm sure there's a ton of LotusScript still in use. Hard to get rid of stuff that works, especially in this economy of reduced IT budgets.
At that three letter insurance company I went to after I left THAT energy company (both companies have had their own troubles with accounting irregularities, neither are my fault!) I used it extensively for server-side agents. Smarter people than I are probably writing Java for server-side processing but there's still room for procedural languages at the table. After all, this wasn't rubust and bulletproof internet e-commerce but intranet development.
Oh, but that was a lifetime ago, it seems...
I am so very excited to see your success and know that "I knew you when..." and that you have memorialized our experiences on the "wide world interwebs."
Well, shut my mouth! It IS my Slingblade buddy. How delightful. Thanks for catching me up on the nuances of Lotus Script; I feel as though a tremendous void has been filled.