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Re: How Much of the Data in The World Is In XML Format?

• To: "XML Developers List" <xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: Re: How Much of the Data in The World Is In XML Format?
• From: "Ken North" <kennorth@s...>
• Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 16:45:30 -0700
• References: <7411F30464DC9C479FB14CFD348D71D95F1AD7@U...>

>> I was throwing away a DEC VAX Fortran manual last week and stopped to think
that once upon a time in my career, almost everything an
application programming engineer had to know to create product was in two 1/2
inch bound notebooks.

It depended on whose computers you were using, and whether you were a systems
programmer or application programmer.

DEC's documentation was very sparse during the PDP-11 era. By the VAX era, DEC
had more software and more manuals,  but still less than IBM mainframe
documentation. A full set of System 360 manuals would fill a rack about 4 feet
wide. Because they were hard to come by, we'd put our names on the spine, put
them on tethers, or lock them in cabinets.

Years after the Apollo program,  I called a friend's office to see if he wanted
to play tennis during my upcoming trip to Silicon Valley. Someone else answered
the phone and offered to take a message. When she heard my name, she asked
whether I'd ever developed software for Goddard Space Flight Center. When I said
yes, she said "I inherited your set of IBM manuals after you left."

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: How Much of the Data in The World Is In XML Format?
    • From: "Rick Jelliffe" <rjelliffe@a...>

• References:
  • RE: How Much of the Data in The World Is In XML Format?
    • From: "Bullard, Claude L \(Len\)" <len.bullard@i...>

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