Nearly 25 years ago. Programming in SAS on the mainframe for the first time. I had to process some data and output some summary reports. Of course, there was a need for some blank lines.
Now, printing on the mainframe: The printer was in another building. A few times a day, someone would bring the printouts over to a specific floor in the other two buildings. So, you had to wait until the time the printouts are dropped off and then go to the floor in the building where they are left and hope it had printed in time for this run.
Obviously, since I was new at this, I figured I'd develop the reports on screen until they looked good enough to see how they looked on paper. Makes sense, right?
The blank lines would never show. Everything was stuck together with no spacing. I tried dozens of things, to no avail. I mentioned it in passing to a couple of more experienced people but they just assumed I needed to work more at it, I guess.
I worked at this all week, no success. Come Friday, we have a section meeting and I mention the issue. Right away some guy with lots of mainframe experience says, "Oh, that's normal. The blank lines won't show on the screen. You have to print if you have to see them."
That look of annoyance on my face coupled with me laughing out loud must have been something.
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Nearly 25 years ago. Programming in SAS on the mainframe for the first time. I had to process some data and output some summary reports. Of course, there was a need for some blank lines.
Now, printing on the mainframe: The printer was in another building. A few times a day, someone would bring the printouts over to a specific floor in the other two buildings. So, you had to wait until the time the printouts are dropped off and then go to the floor in the building where they are left and hope it had printed in time for this run.
Obviously, since I was new at this, I figured I'd develop the reports on screen until they looked good enough to see how they looked on paper. Makes sense, right?
The blank lines would never show. Everything was stuck together with no spacing. I tried dozens of things, to no avail. I mentioned it in passing to a couple of more experienced people but they just assumed I needed to work more at it, I guess.
I worked at this all week, no success. Come Friday, we have a section meeting and I mention the issue. Right away some guy with lots of mainframe experience says, "Oh, that's normal. The blank lines won't show on the screen. You have to print if you have to see them."
That look of annoyance on my face coupled with me laughing out loud must have been something.