So I ask the kid who's working on "the database" if there's any way I can look up gene information using a few fields I mention as an key.
Blank stare.
"You know, in that database thingy you're working on."
He shows me a CGI screen.
"Umm, can't I can just send it some SQL?"
Blank stare. "Why would you want to do that, instead of just using the screens?"
"I've got a C++ program, you know, that app I demoed at the lab meeting last week?"
Blank stare.
Eventually after about 15 minutes of this I get him to show me a tab-delimited text file of what I want. "So you've got not one but two databases (don't ask), but you don't have a single table in either of them to store gene information?"
Blank stare.
