The Internet Is Too Small to Be Snarky
Last week, I was frustrated with Oracle SQL Developer (on Mac OS X) for two reasons:
- When a connection times out (after being left idle too long), the application hangs and I have to Force Quit and restart it.
- Every 90 days, the passwords for our databases change, so an updated connection XML file is put into source control (passwords are encrypted, and we aren’t allowed to know the passwords) and we have to import the new connections. You can’t delete multiple connections at a time from the SQL Developer interface, and importing over an existing connection pops up a Yes/No dialog box asking you if you want to overwrite the existing connection. Since the file contains about 30 connections, this means clicking Yes to the same dialog box 30 times.
I decided to vent, and tweeted this:
I wish more software developers used the software they create on a regular basis, so they’d fix the annoyances. *ahem Oracle SQL Developer*
— Rob Warner (@hoop33) March 21, 2014
The first part of the tweet contains sage advice: developers should indeed use their own software regularly, and that will encourage them to build better software. Then, however, I took a snarky swipe at the developers who work on Oracle SQL Developer. Oracle is a soulless corporation after all, right? And it’s not as if real people work on that software, right? My tweet is in no way offensive, right?
Then I got this tweet:
@hoop33 our team uses it on a daily basis, I live in it. What annoyances can I help you with?
— Jeff Smith (@thatjeffsmith) March 23, 2014
Wow. Not so soulless after all: a real person who not only cares enough to respond to my tweet, but also chooses to ignore my snark and answer with an attitude of helpfulness and class. Properly chagrined, I explained the two issues I was having, and he asked which version of Oracle SQL Developer I was using. Um . . . it turns out that the version I have is pretty old, so he encouraged me to upgrade, and even told me the latest version that would work on my (work) Snow Leopard machine. I downloaded it, connected to a database, and then let it sit for hours. Then I ran another query. In the past, this would cause SQL Developer to hang, and I’d have to Force Quit it. With this new version, however, it automatically reconnected to the database and ran the query. Success!
Let’s look at what I did wrong:
- When I had a problem, I just felt victimized and did nothing about it. For years.
- I never bothered to look for any updates to this piece of software.
- When I got frustrated enough, I took a public swipe at the developers.
I’m a developer. I should know better. I ship buggy code. I release updates all the time that fix bugs and add new features. I don’t enjoy criticism, especially snarky criticism, and especially about something I’ve already fixed!
So, Jeff, I apologize, and I thank you for your help. And for the unspoken reminder to stay classy. I’m still hoping for a smoother, less-interactive import of updated connections, but this time I’ll ask nicely.
And, since Jeff deserves the last word on this far more than I, here’s his response when I told him the new version corrected the application’s hanging:
@hoop33 we spent a lot of time between 3.1 and 3.2 on connection stability/robustness – and handling timeouts properly.
— Jeff Smith (@thatjeffsmith) March 24, 2014