The killer app

Abstract

I've been a programmer for over 30 years, often at the leading edge, never in a classic IT shop. I've worked with several vendors' mainframes, midis and micros, for big firms, small firms, central government, educational establishments, and for myself; in colleges, universities, laboratories and classrooms; in England, in Europe, and in the USA. I've been involved in some total flops, but in one or two real successes too. I could never tell from the outset which it was going to be. The more I see of the software industry, the less I feel I know anything about it. Giving a talk like this is sticking my neck out.But plus ça change… plus ça la même chose. I think I've seen enough by now, and maybe my experience will interest somebody. We've all dreamed of writing the APL program which will make our fortunes. I've had to launder my examples, to protect the guilty along with the innocent. But where I name names, what I have to say is already in the public domain. I've omitted a detailed reference --- this will have to await the book. Most of the principles I've discerned I'm going to present as the experience of two fictitious, companies, Company A, Company B.Company A is not just based on one particular company I've known. Nor is Company B. I bought a honeycomb once. It said on the back 'Produce of more than one country'. I thought, what a marvellous thing --- the dear little bees had actually co-operated in an International Honeycomb! A lesson to us all. But my fictitious companies really are a blend. Not an International Beehive. (Not even IBM was like that.)