Monty Python - The Spanish Inquisition
I was showing some QlikView "virgins" around the product yesterday and came to the subject of mapping tables - one of my most frequently used functions in QlikView script. I came to reciting the two rules that I always give for mapping tables:
1. There can be only 2 fields, and
2. The names of the fields are not important, it is the order of the fields that matters.
And then I found myself reciting the 3rd of the two rules:
3. An almost fanatical devotion to the Pope!
Needless to say, with the average age of the people that I was presenting to being somewhat lower than my own, none of them had a clue as to what I was going on about! I got a few strange looks.
It appears that while treading a well worn path - I have recited these rules many times - my brain decided to head off on a different path and I found myself in the shoes of Cardinal Ximénez while reciting the number of weapons available to the Spanish Inquisition.
Perhaps I could describe it as a "QlikView moment"? Just like when working with QlikView, my brain put two things together that hadn't previously been thought about.
Isn't this the most wonderful thing about QlikView? The whole discovery side of things? But how many of us create QlikView applications that do not let the user discover? How many have a set path that gives the answers that were asked for and no others? I know that I am guilty of a few.
In his recent blog post, The Key to Heaven, Henric Cronström gives us some excellent advice on how to enable the user. We should trust our users more and let them discover - who knows what gems will be revealed.
By the way, the Spanish Inquisition was expected by everyone that they visited! Apparently they gave people 30 days notice:
QI - Spanish Inquisition
Stephen Fry, the font of all knowledge.
Stephen Redmond is author of QlikView Server and Publisher and the QlikView for Developer's Cookbook
He is CTO of CapricornVentis a QlikView Elite Partner. We are always looking for the right people to join our team.
Follow me on Twitter: @stephencredmond
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