SiR & Barcodes or Another non-standard use John S. Lemon
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Transcript of SiR & Barcodes or Another non-standard use John S. Lemon
SiR and Barcodes
The Background• A ‘bright idea’ from Student Recruitment• Try to get more Engineering students• Offer them a free laptop• “Great idea – let’s do it”• “Should we discuss it with DIT ?”
( new name for Computing Centre )• “Only when we’ve finalised it”
SiR and Barcodes
The dialog with DIT• “We’re giving new Engineering students a
free laptop”• Reactions• What machine specification ?• Which software• When• How many
• Finally got some answers
SiR and Barcodes
Fresher’s week• 225 laptops delivered to secure store• Do you know how much space that is ??• “We will be issuing them to the students
tomorrow – we need to only issue them to eligible students and know which machine they got”
• How ?• “We assume you can do a data base !!”
SiR and Barcodes
The data base• The approach had to be simple• Adopt the KISS technique• Each student has a unique Id number• Each computer has a unique serial number• Use these• Issuing was being done at briefing session• Type in 225 id and serial numbers ?
SiR and Barcodes
I-day -1• Need a quick data entry method• Id cards and box labels have bar codes• Get a bar code reader• Needed one quickly• Ordered on credit card – delivery
guaranteed before 1200 next day• Briefing session started at 1430
SiR and Barcodes
I-day -12 hours• Engineering provided Excel file with
students in• Contained eligible and non-eligible• Create a quick and dirty data base• Go home feeling reasonably confident • Why ?
SiR and Barcodes
I-hour -4 A Burns moment• Rabbie Burns
• The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men gang aft agley,
• I’d added myself as a ‘test account’• But PQL forms never found me !!
SiR and Barcodes
Where was I ?• The reader worked• The system worked if I typed my number in• What was wrong ?• The ....ing Id bar code has an extra digit• This is the issue card number for each
replacement !!• I believe that PQL forms code could cope
SiR and Barcodes
Quick coding• I couldn’t work out how to make PQL forms
do what I wanted• Australia would / should be asleep !!• Write a PQL programme to do a quick and
dirty job• Still coding as first briefing started to 100
students• No chance to test properly – only my card
SiR and Barcodes
Conclusion• The bar code reader coped• The coding coped• The people actually handing out the
machines couldn’t !!• It also coped with the ‘chancers’• “Can I get my friends machine”• “I haven’t had my machine”• Non-eligibles