jwgli...@gmail.com (John Gilmore) writes: > They opposed providing every programmer with his or her own terminal: > terminals were not needed all the time; they could be shared, as > keypunches had been. They opposed the use of color terminals, > describing them as costly frills. They opposed the use of non-impact > printers, IBM or Xerox. They oppose the modernization of ancient, > creaky applications: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I could extend > this litany ad infinitum et nauseam; but my point is, I hope, made.
while i had terminal in my office while undergraduate (and system support for univ. systems) and home terminal since mar1970 ... there was perception that terminal on every employee desk was expensive ... required justification in bi-annual budget planning and executive vp justification sign-off. circa 79/80, we did business case justification that 3yr depreciated capital costs of terminal was less than monthly cost of business telephone on every desk ... aka some opinion had been formed in the dark past and never bothered to be updated. part of the cognitive dissonance was also the major split between the batch/card paradigm and the online, interactive paradigm. in this era also say departure of Jim Gray to Tandem and his leaving behind his "MIP Envy" tome ... one version here: http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007d.html#email800920 another version here ... http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gray/ at: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gray/JimGrayPublications.htm as http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gray/papers/MIPEnvy.pdf also from IBM Jargon MIP envy - n. The term, coined by Jim Gray in 1980, that began the Tandem Memos (q.v.). MIP envy is the coveting of other's facilities - not just the CPU power available to them, but also the languages, editors, debuggers, mail systems and networks. MIP envy is a term every programmer will understand, being another expression of the proverb The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. ... snip ... it references that "MIP envy" started the "Tandem Memos" email storm ... aka I had been blamed for online computering conferencing on the internal network in the late 70s and early 80s (folklore is when executive committee was told about online computer conferencing and the internal network, 5of6 wanted to fire me) ... the "Tandem Memo" were actually kicked off from report I distributed after visiting Jim at Tandem ... the first two entries in "Tandem Memo" here: http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013.html#email810402 http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013.html#email810403 When Jim was departing ... he also palming various stuff on me, interacting with customers on RDBMS, DBMS consulting with the IMS group at the santa teresa lab, etc ... this is different than the stuff I did for the IMS group involving supporting channel extender and local, channel-attached 3270 terminals at offsite bldg ... recently mentioned in post in this thread: http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013b.html#55 Dualcase vs monocase. Was: Article for the boss from IBM Jargon: Tandem Memos - n. Something constructive but hard to control; a fresh of breath air (sic). That's another Tandem Memos. A phrase to worry middle management. It refers to the computer-based conference (widely distributed in 1981) in which many technical personnel expressed dissatisfaction with the tools available to them at that time, and also constructively criticised the way products were are developed. The memos are required reading for anyone with a serious interest in quality products. If you have not seen the memos, try reading the November 1981 Datamation summary. ... snip ... also in this period there was a rapid spreading rumor that some of the top executives had started using online email ... followed by a wave of middle-management redirecting the yearly allocation of terminals (justified for engineers and programmers) to their desks ... so they could appear to be part of the emerging online culture. This gave rise to jokes about a whole decade of middle management with terminals on their desks with profs menu being burned into the screen face (i.e. they would log on in the morning and leave the screen for show, never used ... all their email actually be processed on their behalf by their assistants). a decade later ... there were lots of instances, of middle management pre-empting the latest & greatest PS2 shipments for development products ... to their desks for profs terminal emulation (i.e high-end 486 PS with large 8514 display being a terminal emulation status symbol, more important that any organization projects). in any case, there was lots of activity & decisions that were based on opinion w/o any cost/benefit analysis ... first the continued, erroneous perception that terminals on every desk weren't cost justified and then the redirection of annual allocation of terminals to middle management desks for purely status symbol purposes. other posts in this thread: http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013b.html#43 Article for the boss: COBOL will outlive us all http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013b.html#45 Article for the boss: COBOL will outlive us all http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013b.html#51 Article for the boss: COBOL will outlive us all http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013b.html#52 Article for the boss: COBOL will outlive us all http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013b.html#56 Dualcase vs monocase. Was: Article for the boss http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013b.html#57 Dualcase vs monocase. Was: Article for the boss -- virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
