One of the very first things I did in my first job – a training placement as an analyst/programmer for a big engineering company – was to design an invoicing routine. I used a cobol programme on a Data General mini computer to directly control the output to a dot matrix printer and I designed some custom pre-printed stationary using real cut and paste to get the logos in the right places. When it all came together for the first live invoicing run, it was very satisfying to see everything lining up in the right boxes.
Now, nearly twenty years on, I have just written an invoicing system for one of the smaller companies in the group that we have taken over the invoicing functions for. I don’t know why, but I still felt the same thrill of achievement when I printed the first batch of invoices on the big colour laser printer this afternoon. This time, I was using a combination of a sql server database with an access front end and I designed the invoice layout in a matter of hours rather than the days of times gone past.
At this rate, my last task before I retire will be to design an invoicing system in five minutes, using a direct brain interface with the invoices being sent as holograms or something …
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