Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Don't be too impressed...

Updated!

I've been working through a half-assed SDK to make this company's product do some funky shit we need. Only problem is, I think I'm the only one actually developing for this product... After many releases they've either had no complaints or they just haven't repaired glaring problems with their sample code. Their example code for C doesn't compile. Period. Fortunately I found a workaround for the problems in their Perl code...

I couldn't find a function that did all the features we wanted, but there were other functions that did some of the features, so I figured there had to be one the did all the ones we wanted. After digging through their Perl modules I found the one I needed. Only problem was this wasn't exactly a documented function, and their commenting was a bit vague. I tried all kinds of different ways of passing the data, but couldn't get it to accept anything. I had everything working except this portion. After about an hour of trying different types of input, it was time to escalate.

"Hello this is support, how can I help you?"
"Can I escalate?"
"Er, what?"
"Can I escalate?"
"Heh. (insert smugness here) Why don't you just tell me what's going on, and I'll determine whether or not you need to be escalated..."
"If you say so... API.pm has an undocumented function that we want to use; nimPostMessage. I has szSubject, iLevel, szSup and udata, only problem is it doesn't say how to provide udata besides that it must be a reference. There's no notes in the Perl module as to how to present the udata except a mention of providing a PDS reference, but when I populate a new PDS message with the "string" and "number" functions, and reference it in nimPostMessage, sends the other elements but the udata is empty.
"..."
"Hello?"
"Hang on." *muffled talking*
"Are you going to escalate?"
"...Yeah. I'll send you to this guy. He writes probes in Perl."
"Ok."
"Hello?"
"*explain everything again*"
"Wow. I'm impressed. Getting that far is not trivial."
"I hope you're not too impressed, you're supposed to be helping me!"



Latest news was that I've been escalated to the developers overseas... Oy... Just comment your damn code. ESPECIALLY when you're providing an SDK or API..

New update! Apparently reading comprehension is not very high wherever my problem got sent because I was told that there was a bug in the module (which I found), and that I should reformat my request to the right way (which is the way it was, had they bothered to look). They also comment that I shouldn't use that particular function, and prefer that I use a function that does not provide all the data points I require, even though I stated all the data points I needed. Double oy. I replied with why his request was wrong, and abstained from challenging his ability to read. I also removed the signoff I wanted to use; "You're a fucktard," and just went with "Thanks,"

5 comments:

Fletch said...

I don't like this post anymore.

blogagog said...

Did you remember to name your scalar variables beginning with a '$'? Also, reboot and see if that fixes it.

Hope I helped!

Josh said...

After the second paragraph, it just went right over my head. But it was funny...I think...

Anonymous said...

Hmm, is this what I have to look forward to if I decide to become a programmer?

blogagog said...

"...and that I should reformat my request to the right way (which is the way it was, had they bothered to look)."

Screw that. Any real tech support guy would be able to tell you that the complete solution involves reformatting your hard drive, not your request.

Also, reboot and call me in the morning.