Bio: Tim Gettig

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Bio: Tim Gettig
24-Jul-2003 -- Susan Pichotta
 
Icetips is pleased to resume our bi-weekly bios of Clarion developers with a Clarionite who has lived a few places, including Tennessee, Florida, Ohio and even Panama! He talks about a project where he was programming blind, and how the abused code in Clarion templates helps him sleep at night. A first-time father after 21 years of marraige, he is also the first bio-ee to include an original poem! And don't miss the 3 pond photos at the end.
 
Who do you work for?
Myself. Although some notable firms have employed me, I've mostly been a self-employed contractor.
 
What do you like best about what you do now?
I like the freedom to be home with my family and work around our ever-changing schedules. I like puzzles and challenges and mysteries. I like writing source code, logic tests, and figuring out the "unfigureoutable". ;-) I like the phrase or tag line, "The improbable, we do. The impossible takes a bit longer."
 
What has been one of your biggest challenges in using Clarion?
Probably keeping up with all the changes in programming paradigms caused by the changes in operating systems through the years: from the early years of DOS, where the program was in control of the user, to the new way of constructing programs for MS-Windows, where the user is, now, in control of the program. Also, trying to keep up with the changes in third-party developer products and multiple database "hooks" has been challenging.
 

Tim's office

What has been one of your biggest challenges in business?
One is finding projects that last. Seems once I finish a project, I spend too much time working to find the next project. Also, I spend extra time with the users of my programs during their design and creation, so that there isn't much left to do to modify them later because the programs satisfy their total requirements, except maybe for writing additional reports as they are needed.
 
Do you use any computer languages besides Clarion?
Not anymore. In the DOS days I did. I used to do most my programming in BASICA (Advanced Basic) in conjunction with Microsoft's compilers and linkers. Once I realized ALL the RAD tools in Clarion, I quickly left Basic behind. Why? I really like the RAD ability of Clarion as this allows me more time to focus on the integrity of the program and data. I really like the screen (forms), dictionary (data), and report generators. I also sleep better at night knowing Clarion is based on templates of tried-n-true, used and abused, code! Templates help curb the potential for the program to encounter the "unknown/thought of" user operating quirks or problems.
 
When did you start using Clarion?

The Gettigs' house in Ohio

In the summer of 1989. Doesn't that sound like a movie or rock tune? I was working for Consolidated Computers in Fort Lauderdale, who introduced me to Clarion.
 
They had written an Inventory Control and Job Costing program for one of their clients and then went on to design and code a complete general comprehensive accounting program. They then purchased a payroll program and code from another Clarion programmer and we incorporated that into our accounting system. Then, their lead programmer left and they promoted me to Sr. Programmer and I rewrote the entire system, upgraded it so it was multi-department and multi-firm capable. I further enhanced it by adding consolidated reporting of selectable firms.
 
According to the owner, I was capable of designing complete systems, so I got into programming MSI/Telxon serial and radio-frequency handhelds using Symbol laser barcode scanners/readers and wrote a complete DSD (backdoor delivery) system for the grocery industry for MSI (which was eventually bought by Telxon).
 
I really liked that project because it was cutting-edge technology back in the early 90's. I remember I could walk around outside in the parking

Another view of the house

lot using an RF handheld to communication with my PC. I wrote both the software on the PC, which used a base-station to communicate with the software I authored on the handheld. I even designed my own communication protocols, because the ones I received with the handhelds were too restricting for the dock personnel who had to use them.
 
What's the coolest project(s) you've worked on using Clarion?
I came across a beauty supply distribution wholesaler who had about 40 salesmen "in the field" using Telxon handhelds containing a custom piece of software, which communicated through the phone lines with a Thoroughbred System on an old network. I converted that system to a Novell network, and rewrote the custom program in the upgraded Telxon handhelds and the sister program on the PCs, with only a printout of the "C" code, of the old system, used on the receiving PCs.
 
That was like programming "blind" almost. We used a wedge device to view the communication strings being returned from the Telxon handhelds and then customized the new handheld software from scratch. It was trial and error programming, but we wound up with a tremendously good program to replace what they were using before.
 
The old system had lots of bugs and drove the System Administrator crazy, because he was forced to reboot the Thoroughbred network multiple times during the day, curbing their production processing the orders they received from the salesman. We had 3 2400-baud (WOW that was fast back then ;-) ) External Hayes modems connected to the Novell network. Once I completed the replacement software all those problems went away and they were really happy with my product.
 

Have you done anything for a living other than software development?
Yeah. After working for Pru-LMI (Prudential - Lumbermen's Mutual Insurance Company), I had much experience installing, and setting up Novell networks, so I did many of these to start my own business in South Florida, along with selling my custom software. That was very lucrative while it lasted. Eventually, Windows-NT kind of muscled its way in and forced much of the Novell opportunities away. Businesses were then able to get similar technology for a tenth of the costs of the Novell networks.
 
What are your hobbies/what do you like to do when you're not using Clarion?
I like gardening, riding and caring for horses, swimming, bicycling, land and water-sports, and writing poetry. I've had 9 poems of mine published by the National Library of Poetry. My wife and I also like hiking the trails and canoeing the rivers in the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee (where you can "drink the water")! I've also enjoyed researching religious and government history as well as my own family genealogy.
 
Married, children, grandchildren, other close family you want to mention?

Harmony Hope Gettig, July 11, 2003

Good question. Interesting answer, too! My wife, Janice, and I met at a vocational, technical high school in Perrysburg (Toledo), Ohio when we were 15/16 years old. We dated for 3 and half years and then married when I was 19 and she was 18.
 
After 21 and half years of marriage we had our first child, Harmony Hope. If we had had kids when we first got married, we would have kicked them out of the house already. Many times we were asked if we ever planned on having children and I always said, "Well maybe when we finally end up in Tennessee (we always planned to move to Tennessee to retire after we "made it" in our careers) we might. We didn't want to raise children in the Toledo or Fort Lauderdale areas.
 
Well fate be as it is, we purchased 11 acres of prime Tennessee (Cherokee) forest back in 1998. We had lived in Fort Lauderdale from 1989 until 1999, when we decided it was time to relocate to the Knoxville, Tennessee area, where I had lived when I was 14/15 years of age and had vowed to return one day.
 
While our house in Fort Lauderdale was up for sale, and we were preparing our move, Janice became pregnant and 6 months after we moved to Tennessee (January of 2000), our first child, Harmony, was born. We were and still are elated.
 
After living in Tennessee for 3 years, my "partner in crime" (Tony Sarica, my business partner in Fort Lauderdale) died at 56 years of age, unexpectedly, of cancer. I realized life is very special and each day is a gift and decided we needed to return to the Toledo area, where my wife's family and my Mom's family live, so Harmony could know them and they could know her.
 
As they say in Tennessee, "Ain't none of us gettin' any younger". We returned to the Toledo area in October of 2002. Harmony is now 3 years old and we, and our families, really enjoy her.
 
Where were you born?
Panama City, Florida. I'm one of the few natives left! ;-)
 
Where do you live now?
In a big stone farmhouse in Cygnet, Ohio.
 

Tim and Harmony in North Carolina, May 2002, in the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest Joyce Kilmer is known for his poem "Trees"

What's interesting about where you live?
Although Toledo is a metropolis, we're out in the country amongst 900 acres of farmland. A lot of popcorn is grown here, so we have the pleasure of popping fresh popcorn grown in the fields surrounding our home.
 
We also have a beautiful pond next to the house, which creates a beautiful landscape and attracts much wildlife. We have deer roaming behind our home, ducks and geese in the pond occasionally and way too many birds! I can't leave our vehicle parked outside unless I like that "spotted" look. ;-)

 
Have you lived any other interesting places?
When I was 9 and 10 years of age, we lived in Panama Canal Zone in Central America. I learned Spanish and quite a bit about American and Panamanian history. I learned how and why the canal was built. We used to visit the locks regularly and whenever family members or our friends from "the states" visited us.
 
We did much swimming, boating, and hopping the islands. I remember visiting the San Blas Islands and Indians, and Toboga Island, enjoying the flora and wildlife, especially the many varieties of parrots, macaws, snakes, sloths, huge bull-frogs, and monkeys, etc.
 
We were friends with a family whose father worked at Mira Flores Locks. Once my mother had the honor of opening/closing the locks, and controlling the water lifting a merchant ship to the next level. That was exciting.
 
Which person, from past or present, do you most admire and why?
Well, there are two of them.
 
The first is Jesus. What an inspirational life he led. He passed on much teaching, which is still being figured out today.
 

Harmony and Janice, May 2002 Little Santeetlah Creek footbridge, North Carolina

The second would have to be my wife. She has put up with my "wandering in the wilderness", so to speak, for 28 years. Then she bore the most beautiful child I've ever seen; my daughter Harmony Hope.
 
Believe it or not, 2 or 3 months before Janice became pregnant, I had an "extra-special-personal-spiritual-experience" and somehow KNEW my wife was going to become pregnant and bear a daughter, and I decided that very moment, to name her Hope. As I said then, we would bring some "hope" into this world. About a week after Harmony was born, I wrote a poem about it. I'll include it, here, for you to read.
 
Harmony (and) Hope
 
Troubled past leaves heartfelt love replaces
Moved from common ground to newly known spaces
Bringing baskets bountiful with love and light
Giving, ever so gently, a new soul, to fly its mighty flight.
 
Hard times make the good times more precious remembering
In the depths of our soul and mind, for just us to find,
From our true beginning to a magnificent new start
Blending what hurts, with the greatest love in our hearts.
 
Blessed is the soul who knows again where we began
Seeing thru to the truth, left for all to share in eventually.
Granting simply all of which we already knew and had
Bringing on such a wonder, makes you mother, and makes me dad.
 
For memory is the treasure book we all write and keep inside
And love is the light sent to illuminate it so it won't hide
That big rainbow of colors from which we all shine so bright
Gives back to the source, and the calm dark, all our best light.
 
Treasures moving our time past mountains from the oceans float
For love of life down deep in our souls gave us Harmony (and) Hope.
Written by Timothy A. Gettig on Friday, July 7, 2000  
What is your favorite food?
Chinese cuisine; namely Szechwan Beef.
 
What is your favorite drink?
Pink grapefruit juice. Makes a great chaser after a sip of "moonshine". ;-)
 
What is your favorite type of music?
Well produced, and classic, Rock-n-Roll. The band YES is a great example.
 
What is your favorite book? Movie?
There are many. The Bible, The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck, and Genesis Revisited and the Earth Chronicles by Zechariah Sitchin.
 
Movie? Again there are a few that come to mind. The Planet of the Apes, Jesus Christ Superstar, Billy Jack, The Life of Brian...
 
If Clarion never existed, what do you think you would be doing at this time?
Probably programming in Oracle or something similar.
 
Anything else you want to mention?
I enjoyed ETC-III and meeting so many of you from all over the world. I also felt very privileged meeting with the Knoxville Clarion Users Group every 2nd Thursday of each month while I was living south of Knoxville.
 
I'm currently looking for my next project or better yet a company looking to hire me for the next 25 years, so I can continue in this great business of programming and data-processing consulting. I'm always looking to increase my skill set.
 
I want to say thanks to Icetips, and especially Susan, for your efforts compiling these tremendously interesting bio's we've all enjoyed for some time now. Thanks to the Clarion community for the sharing of ideas, tips, opinions, and politically charged discussions and debates. I've enjoyed much of this with each of you.
 

The pond, in October 2002...

then a month later, November 2002, with snow...

and last, early July 2003 with Harmony and Tim.