The Night Before Installation
My son brought this home from school one day (he works in an electronics and
computer science lab at a community college). I have no idea of its origin.
This work, as I received it, bore no copyright notice.
If anybody knows this work to be copyrighted, please let me know and I will
remove it immediately.
'Twas the night before installation,
And all through the shop,
Not a program was working,
It sure was a flop.
The programmers hung by their tubes in despair,
In hope that a miracle soon would be there.
The users were nestled all snug in their beds
While visions of inquiries danced in their heads.
When out in the hall there arose such a clatter
I sprang from my desk to see what was the matter.
And what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a Super Programmer (with a six-pack of beer)
His resume glowed with experience so rare,
He turned out great code with a bit-pusher's flair.
More rapid than eagles, his programs they came,
And he whistled and shouted and called them by name.
On Update! On Add! On Inquiry! On Delete!
On Batch! On Closing! On Function Complete!
His eyes were glazed over, fingers nimble and lean,
From weekends and nights in front of a screen.
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
Turning specs into code; then he turned with a jerk,
And laying a finger upon the "Enter" key,
The system came up and worked perfectly.
The Updates updated, The Deletes, they deleted;
The inquiries inquired, and Closing completed.
He tested each whistle and each bell,
With nary an abend, and all had gone well.
The system was finished, the tests were concluded;
The users' last changes were even included.
And the users exclaimed with a snarl and a taunt,
"It's just what I asked for, but not what I want!"
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