A little Christmas variation: Twas the night before startup and all through the machine Not a program was working, not even "DISK CLEAN". The staff wimpered by their tubes in despair With hopes 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 coffee room there arose such a clatter I sprang from my cubicle to see what was the matter. And what to my wondering eyes should appear But SUPER-CODER, as up went our cheer. His resume showed he'd been hacking for seasons He turned out clean code that used structured reasons. Faster than speeding bullets, the programs they came, And each one had a six letter descriptive name. RUN RECADD, RUN INQUIR, RUN UPDATE and DELETE, RUN MONEND, RUN YEREND, RUN BATJOB and COMPLT. His eyes they were glassy, his body pale and lean, From long nights and weekends in front of the screen. A twitch of his eye, and a nod of his head, Soon gave me to know we 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 placing his finger on the key, The system came up and ran perfectly. UPDATE updated, and DELETE it deleted, And when he ran COMPLT the whole thing completed. He tested each whistle and he tested each bell, Not once using ON ERROR GOTO, and the whole thing ran swell. The testing was finished, the coding concluded, The user's last changes were even included. We signed off the system, and turned it all in, And waited for comments and the praise to begin. But the user asked for more changes, and added the taunt, "It's just what I asked for, but not what I want!" -------------- Author unknown