It was May 9th and my colleagues were busy with work, I was also doing my pending project work .One of my colleague was struggling with something called “MIDI”. Which I had never heard of.
Out of curiosity I looked on to her screen, my God what was that!!! It was sort of musical keyboard and some complex GUI .I Googled it .. an acronym for “Musical Instrument Digital Interface”. So the MIDI stuff was about sound and it is data communication protocol. It allows electronic devices to interact. Back to work as curiosity itch was itched.
Deep into my coding, a message from the Technical director popped up “Come in”. Took deep breath and went into the cabin, it was just a meeting discussing status of my project work. At the end of the discussion the director said “you will be on a new project from now on”. And started explaining to me in brief and I realized it was the same “MIDI ” based project. I was astounded when I heard the deadline was 11 days away! .This meant I had to take a grip over the concept in a day or two, the same concept with which my was mate struggling for last doze days.
Had no problems with Delphi, but the Great Wall of China for me was “MIDI”. I put on the thinking hat and everything was only “MIDI”, “MIDI” and “MIDI”. Quick start with basic research, browsing through the clients documents, a little of Google, a quick chat with team mate and the MIDI project was ON..!!
“The best way to get a project done faster is to start sooner….” Once my team was clear with requirements, work was divided.
With Google and Skype, we shared knowledge and research without a hint of noise (shhhhhh…Not to disturb the others :P) .The basic skeleton was up. A thumbs up from the client, that we were heading in the correct direction.
I was a bit happy and scared too as we hadn’t yet started the main thing..!! “MIDI”.
The main challenges were
1) To send and receive MIDI notes using Delphi
2) Interaction of two applications using MIDI.
My team started with simple Delphi application and by the EOD we hit the jackpot. Our MIDI Wall of China was beneath our feet.
Two and a half day later the sending and receiving part was done.
Done with the point 1…now heading for challenge 2.
“Integration” (hoping for it won’t be a headache) we started integrating both applications and testing on it. And yes it worked. With some guests (access violations) without which my project is incomplete. Fixed the bugs/AVs and now it’s time to give a demo to the Technical director.
Technical director was very happy with the result. This was not all .It was client who should like it, or it should be up to his satisfaction.
A 20 mins meeting with the client, the application was according to his requirements and was up to his satisfaction. With a request some minor changes in application and good comments the call ended.
Inspired by the client comments and boss’ comments, we completed the requested changes in a half day and successfully delivered to the application to the client
MIDI in action
