Re: working storage values

On Dec 20, 6:32 am, Alistair <alist...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 18 Dec, 05:45, Robert <n...@xxxxxx> wrote:



On Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:28:07 -0800 (PST), Alistair <alist...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 15 Dec, 22:09, Robert <n...@xxxxxx> wrote:
On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:11:28 +0000 (UTC), docdw...@xxxxxxxxx () wrote:
In article <6969359c-00e5-4485-9e94-2e0e0acb1...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Richard <rip...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Seeing an example like that, no wonder Cobol is dying.

Some see examples like that every working day on systems that are still
hugely profitable to the companies that run them... a curious sort of
death, aye.

Mainframe systems are hugely EXPENSIVE to the companies that run them. They are hugely
profitable to IBM.

OK Robert: Microsoft or IBM? Whom would you rather get into bed with?

If I HAD to pick one, it would be Microsoft. At least half the things they do are either
good or well intentioned. They had the courage and size to move the industry from text to
GUI screens in 1995. If it were up to IBM, we'd still be using green screens.

Perhaps I should point out that MS only went GUI after seeing work
done by XEROX. If it had not been for Xerox then pc users would
probably still be using green screens too.

No. That is not correct.

It was Apple that went to Xerox, and paid then for the visit. They
then created Lisa. MS had previously implemented their Basic on Apple ]
[ and was asked to work on various projects on Lisa and Macintosh.

DRI meanwhile developed GEM and demonstrated a prototype running on MS-
DOS at Comdec. This pushed MS into _announcing_ Windows later at the
same Comdec, which they then started to write. Apple was a customer,
DRI/GEM was a competitor and a threat. Windows 1 was approximately on
a par with GEM prototype but was 20 months later. Windows 2 was only
slightly worse than GEM 1.

Apple sued DRI and this basically stopped GEM development. Prototypes
of GEM-X on FlexOS (DRIs realtime system) were demonstrated but
withdrawn. A million copies of GEM on MS-DOS had sold before Windows 1
was released. GEM also was the GUI of Atari 512.

There were several other GUI systems around and MS was, as usual,
following a trend and announcing vapourware to stop the market while
it bought in or wrote something.

History gets rewritten to make Bill the inventor of the transistor,
the internet and the GUI.

The winner write the history books, the losers write the songs.
.

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