Need Advice -- What would you do?

Of course I know that the life of a programmer is fraught with ups and downs, but this is ridiculous!

For two years, I have been working on a client-server system for a medical clinic. All I really had to start with was: make it gui-based and workable over a network and phone lines.

After about 3 months, my recommendation was: (I pretty much dumped the phone-line question right off the bat!) run an Oracle Back end on a SunSparc10 and since Oracle had a tool for 4D (to build a gui), I reasoned that I ought to use the 4D tool for the prototype and go from there.

(btw -- I am doing this gui on a mac).

They went for it. To make a long story short, a new guy (with pretty minimal database experience) got assigned to manage the project right about the time I got the 4D product.

He wanted me to *write* the interface from scratch using oo design and the oci libraries. But I took an hour and made a small application with the 4-d product just to show him how quickly and easily we could get *something* out.

He went *ballistic* -- wouldn't hear of using a tool.

So, for the last 6 months, I have been scrambling around, trying desparately to get something out in c++ using the oci libraries.

I was a *c* programmer when all this started, and I can use the oci libraries in an oop, etc. I am enormously proud of the work that I have done: trouble is that I don't have enough time to do the work properly, and it seems like I am always struggling up a learning curve, hoping it will be the last.

Alas, once I get to the top of one curve, there is another lurking.

My point is this: I work for non- and semi-naieve programmers. They just don't understand why I can't spit this stuff out in a day or two (really!).

I am frustrated and working at full-throttle, but cannot see how this will work: I am supposed to be gui-developer, sysadmin, dba and db developer. I *want* to finish and get out a good product, but I don't see how anything short of disaster can happen.

What would you do? If I stay and manage to pull it off, it'll be a big feather in my cap, but if it fails, it'll hurt me professionally.

I have asked repeatedly if we couldn't use a gui tool for the development, and he has poo-poohed the idea.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!

Lauren Received on Thu Mar 10 1994 - 21:19:57 CET