Green Bars Everywhere

When I develop anything at all, I think about the JUnit 'green bar' that signals all is well. I try to find green bars everywhere, even in unusual places. The Green Bar is a way of life.

For example, an SQL datafile contains the 'seed' values for a database. It's just data. You can't unit test it. You just load it up into MySQL using the "\. filename.sql" syntax. My computer beeps when something's wrong. Everytime I change the datafile, I do "\. filename.sql" which drops the DB, re-creates the DB, creates all tables, then loads all data. No beep? All is well. Next change. Load file. No beep? All is well. Next change. Load file. No beep? All is well.

Using this process, I have a robust .sql file that I have complete confidence in. I come back from my lunch, so I do "\. filename.sql" and watch it load without a hitch. No beep. That's my 'green bar' for .sql datafiles.

-- AnnetteTruong

Same warm feeling when the Linksys wireless card software monitor in the taskbar shows green (connected). Red = headaches (fiddle, apply, reboot, reset, ping the router, ping the gateway, ping yahoo.com, finally...)

How many of us *Unit adopters would patronize a drinking establishment named 'The Green Bar'? [*]

Green HandHelds were also soothing; back in '97, I used to have to dial into work at 2am each morning for 1/2 hour with a handheld PC using PocketPCAnywhere - only monochrome in those days. Used wired dialup at 14k to NT server and could control multiple machines & check process status without getting out of bed or turning on the side lamp (glow was enough to see keys). The green glow was hypnotic, but yearned for color and was excited when the first color handhelds came out. Nowadays, have the latest Toshiba e750 sleek WiFi HandHeld; brilliant color, can tunnel wirelessly over dsl into Citrix or VNC at work/customers to get to 2003 server or linux machines with gnome, but try to use that at 2am in the morning and go blind even with lowest intensity setting. Now nostalgic for the cool green glow; there should be a mode or software to download for current HandHelds to turn screen monochrome for late night/early morning surfing without being jarred.