Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

At 4pm today my thesis advisee called up to say he had finished the visual basic program for his topic. He wanted to bring it to the department immediately, even when I told him I was leaving at 5pm. He actually arrived at half past five, and I just said I’d copy his program for future evaluation because I had to leave already.

I was suspicious though that his program is only 248 kilobytes small. I already think it doesn’t contain all the features that he and I discussed with the panelists a year ago. As he took his diskette back he did say that he really wasn’t able to complete that part where the paths of the planets and the moon were traced in the sky for a specified period of time.

Although I didn’t say it then I don’t know why he would have with the path tracing. All he had to do was place a mark on the star chart for the position of the celestial object for a specific range of date and time, recomputed in small duration increments.
He also said that the reason he took two terms and most of the summer to finish it was because he had to do the program again from scratch. This means he scrapped the program he showed the panelists the last time he defended.

I asked him about the paper. He said that was what he was planning to finish next. When I inquired about an estimated completion date, he said next week. He was hoping to defend by Thursday or Friday next week. I told him that meant he had to give his paper to his panelists by Wednesday. I also instructed him to give letters to his panelists as soon as possible notifying them of his intentions and requesting to be informed about their availability.

We actually have no problem with two of his panelists, because one of them I have seen every time I’ve been in the research labs these three weeks, and the other is the chairman. He only has to hope he can contact the third panelist in time, especially since the earliest I expect him to show up at the department is Wednesday next week.

Tomorrow I’ll look over his program with another co-teacher of mine who has handled astronomy classes, and I’ll be asking for her comments, so that my opinions won’t be the only ones I’ll tell him. I’ll also ask him for a copy of the original list of features the panelists and I said we expected from his work, in case the panelists have misplaced their copies. I know I’ve forgotten where I put mine.

I’ll just tell him it’s better to have written proof of the panelists’ requirements rather than rely on them to misremember points and concerns that may never have been discussed at all.