Al Prosser's Detailed Work History

Last update May 2010, minor adjustments
September 3, 2002 (just adjusting links)
This page is under construction and far from complete! This is an outline that I will fill out when I have time.

Note: a lot of this was written about last century so much of the more recent work is missing.

This is a more detailed history of the kinds of programming tasks I have worked on than the moderate list of what I did in the Space Program at "http://www.alprosser19.com/alworks.html" or more recently at EDS "http://www.alprosser19.com/alwork.html".

There are several ways to organize this information, so I will try to cross reference some of the paths and may change the order some time in the future. I may also split off some parts to separate files.

Contents

While in Space Program

I graduated from University of Houston in December, 1985. I was working at IBM Federal Systems Division for a few weeks, and just got my NASA badge when the famous Challenger explosion occured. I still remember where I was and all that. I'll write about it sometime. From then until October 1997, I worked in the same organization, all but the first six months in the same department. The name of the organization, division, and company changed several times. To be expanded

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Computer Languages

To be expanded. For now, see the list of languages.

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Operating Systems

I have used so many Operating Systems, and survived so many upgrades, that learning a new one is like learning to drive a different brand of Automobile. They all have to do the same functions, it is only a matter of finding the controls.

While still in school, I used Digital VAX machines. UNIX was just coming out, and my Operating Systems class project was to simulate the UNIX file system with protection.

I used DOS 1.0 - 2.x at my Coop Job and at home. I later used as far as DOS 3.2 before changing to OS/2 1.3, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0 Warp at work. I used many Windows 3.x application from OS/2, and still use OS/2 4.0 at home on one computer and Windows 95 on the other (until 1998).

I began using VM and MVS early in my IBM career (1982-3). In later years, I was on teams to help coordinate application tool changes to be compatible with systems upgrades.

I have used Windows on workstations from 3.0 to 3.1 to 95 to 98SE to XP. I did Java Programming on Win XP to be ported to Solaris. I used Solaris for 4 years.

To be expanded

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Programming Methodologies

I have seen quite a number of programming methodologies over the years. The names and terms change more often than the underlying concepts. Even in the mid 1980s while we were doing structured, procedural programming with concepts that would later be called Object Oriented, Frameworks, reusable components, patterns, or whatever. I have worked in all phases of the system life cycle, and used waterfall and spiral models to show parts of the cycle and studied other models.

To be expanded

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Requirements/ Systems Analysis

To be expanded. For now, see the list of recent duties.

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Testing

To be expanded. For now, see the list of recent duties.

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Documentation

My Compiler Design professor counted documentation as half our programming grade, IF our projects worked. Since then, I have considered proper documentation vital to any programming project. Frequently, I have seen documenting programs as a prerequisite for moving on to new opportunities. I ususally start writing a program by writing an outline of the design in comments, then filling in the code.

Some of my early work was writing user interface and help panels for ISPF interactive applications. I was also on teams to create standards and procedures for documentation as well as code. I worked on documents for several types of users, each requiring a different level of detail.

In early 1987, I got tired of waiting for an available documentation specialist and took a course in Script/GML. While most of the other programmers and analysts would hand write their documentation updates, I would just write in SGML (or later, Bookmaster) and turn in the file. Almost all of my home page is written in raw HTML in a plain editor, since HTML is just a Generalized Markup Language dialect anyway.

I have written a lot of documentation in Ami-Pro, since it was the standard desktop word processor for a few years, and used Microsoft Word for several years, but really prefer to write in a operating system and tool independent manner, so lean a bit to HTML as a preference. I find it bothersome when a word processor formats text how IT wants, instead of how I want. At least many of them will now read and save in HTML, so I can have the best of both.

To be expanded.

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Major Projects

This is not a complete list, just a sample.

To be expanded.

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Ongoing Tasks

To be expanded. For now, see the list of recent duties.

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Coordination and One Time Tasks

Over the years, I frequently worked on teams to coordinate upgrades in operating systems or compilers.

For a while, I was the tools area representative or backup to the group with NASA to discuss operating system upgrades and issues. This was to keep our developers informed of changes that could impact our programs, and to make sure changes that were made by the systems folks were coordinated with our developers.

A lot of subprograms in the Shuttle Simulator and post processing systems were originally written for the IBM FORTRAN H extended compiler, essentially FORTRAN IV. A few years after IBM stopped supporting FORTRAN H, I was the lead to coordinate the conversion to VS FORTRAN, essentially FORTRAN 77.

When we converted from PL/I version 1.5.1 to version 2.3, I did research across the IBM internal network, communicating with programmers from other sites to find out what challenges had been faced and how to avoid the pitfalls. I combined information from reports from Austria(?) and somewhere else to a list of program characteristics to search for that was distributed to developers responsible for PL/I programs. I also did searches to identify which programs were at risk.

I would frequently do searches and audits over the years because of my familiarity with the languages we used and the location of the files. One of the last was to do some checks for YR2000 compliance. We were to get a PTF (bug fix) applied so that the PL/I date function will work, and I audited the executables to be sure which ones would need to be relinked if they were not already being updated. I also checked a few applications that were using dates in various ways.

Part of becoming a mature software organization (as defined by the Software Engineering Institute), is coordinating between groups. There are many of these groups in OBS, and I served as a representative to several of them. Some were long term, like

There were some short term coordination groups as well.

To be expanded.

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Programming Tools Experience

To be expanded. For now, see the list of languages.

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Computer Security

Most of the applications I worked on had to have some security considerations. Each application needed to be evaluated to determine what level of security was needed, and how to provide it. There were many combinations of hard coded userids, ISPF table lookups, RACF protection of input, output, or control datasets.

In the early 1990s, I became a RACF group administrator for our second level organization, as a side task to my normal duties. Although I had already written applications that did most of the commands required, I took the certification course required by NASA of anyone with GROUP SPECIAL access.

I audited the security, set up userids, and reset passwords for several departments, including a duplicate system set up for Government SECRET operations.

To be expanded.

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Contact Info

Al's Home Page is at http://www.alprosser19.com/

Comments to alprosser19@yahoo.com