Paul D. Anderson wrote:
Walter Bright Wrote:
It's interesting because it's right before computers moved in and
replaced everything. If I'd stayed another year, I'd have bought
(with my own funds) a desktop computer and put it on my desk. I'm
sure that within 2 years Boeing would have automatically supplied
me with one.
Hmmm... I'm trying to recall when it was that Boeing started
"automatically" supplying desktop PCs. I know they didn't do that
when I started here (1985). I know they first started supplying the
office assistants (they were "secretaries" back then) with Wang word
processors not too long after I started. I seem to recall my boss
getting a PC at some point. I can't recall exactly when, but it had
to be five years or more after that.
I was hired at Boeing as a software engineer (my degree is in
mechanical engineering) so I always had access to a computer, but it
was always either a computer for the system we were designing or it
was test support equipment. But a desktop computer for general use
didn't occur for a long time.
When I was there the Wangs were in a separate, locked room. The
operators had to go through a Wang training course, and then they
"Wanged" full time. I picked up the Wang manual and started using one in
about 5 minutes, which really annoyed the manager of the Wang pool.
(The managers of these fiefdoms worked hard at creating a mythology
around their priestesses of the Wangs. In reality, it wasn't harder than
any J-random text editor.)
I had blustered my way into the Wang pool because I was expected to
handwrite the whole document and then hand it over to a Wang priestess
to Wang it in. No way was I going to waste time doing that.
