Thou shalt have no other gods before the ANSI C standard 1445

Sorry to delurk again (twice in one year!), but "business" needs a better definition here...

Some examples from my current employer:

If business means those gals in the front office that spend two hours using Microsoft Office (Word, etc) to churn out a few pages of typed text, two hours playing solitaire, and two hours checking their horoscope online; sure, they use Microsoft stuff to get 1-3 (maybe) the product that we used to get out of an Underwood typewriter.

If business means counting the dollars, printing the paychecks, and figuring out how to wreck the pension plan, it's done with the IBM AS-400 using grungy old software written in RPG. The darned thing still thinks it's eating punchcards... No Microsoft Products in sight.

If business means "producing the product we exchange for revenue", it's done using a variety of ROM driven embedded systems that were programmed in machine language by some very productive people in Malasia, Korea, Pakistan, or Japan. Once again, no Microsoft products to be found.

Why does the gal in example #1 need a gigabyte of RAM, 160 gig of hard drive, and a 1.2 GHz computer to use her fancy new computer as a typewriter? The answer is: Microsoft Windows.

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By the way, I've never used a pdp-10 and have no idea what the merits of TOPS-10, TENEX, TOPS-20, or ITS might entail. I haven't the faintest clue about how symmetric multiprocessing worked on systems from DEC.

I do remember time-sharing though. I remember the transition from batch processing to online computer access. BAH was there. Her initials are in the source code to parts of the operating system and the documentation thereof. At the very least, she's a witness to history. Better yet, she saw (and remembers) how it all happened.

I know she doesn't need me to defend her. I'm not. But I am encouraging the "other side" to at least listen and learn. I get to fight with Microsoft Products everyday. I'm painfully aware of their limitations. Here's hoping the folks that build the "general purpose" computers take the time to learn from the history that BAH and the other venerable ones can provide.

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Back to lurking for now.

-- Micheal H. McCabe