Main duties:
Development work using C with Embedded SQL, Ingres 4GL and Unix on HP hardware. The company wrote software for the management of oil storage terminals including measurement of the volume in the tanks after the oil tankers had discharged, and metering of the deliveries to filling stations etc by truck. Many million pounds' worth of product were handled every day.
My work at F.M.A. Systems included writing a large number of user screens in Ingres 4GL, and major modifications and additions to the C programs central to the co-ordination of the Ingres database system on the HP9000 with the real-time metering of deliveries on the HP1000.
Modules which I wrote included:
- The 'Stocks' module which was used for calculating the contents of the storage tanks from the temperature and density of the oil together with the 'dip' measured by a man on the roof of the tank with a type of plumb-line.
- The 'Drawing Allocations' package (written partly in C with Embedded SQL and partly in Ingres 4GL) which was used by the oil terminal to authorise a client to draw a certain amount of product. This required a great deal of precision in the use of table locking so that the oil terminal's clients could not exceed their drawing allocations even when several lorries were loading at the same time.
- Numerous reports using the Ingres Report Writer, for use both internally by the oil terminal and for presentation to HM Customs.
- I also translated two lengthy technical specifications for the company, one from French and one from Spanish.