smith@canon.co.uk (Mark Smith) (06/27/90)
This is from the premier edition of Software Development International
magazine, the Editor's Notes column, entitled "A Revolution of Our Own".
It's probably best read with the Battle Hymn of the Republic playing
in the background, building to a crescendo at the end:
It would be a mistake to underestimate the new complexity facing those of
us who make computers useful. We have a lot of tough choices ahead, and some
of us aren't going to make it.
It would be a bigger mistake to underestimate the revolution's significance.
We who build computers and write code and administer networks contribute to
society in countless ways, many of them invisible to users. We supply high
performance drafting systems to engineers who build inexpensive, efficient
bridges that don't fall down. We improve productivity one company at a time
by writing, installing, and supporting accounting software. We're advancing
the state of the art in mining, in publishing, in medicine, in education...
in virtually every industry.
You're a hero of the revolution. Welcome aboard.
[...]
It all sounds pretty ambitious for a 72-page magazine. But we're fortunate
to be working with some of the best programmer-authors in the business, writers
with an engineer's-eye view of high technology. You'll find no fluff here,
no academic treatises on how many polymorphic objects can dance on the head of
a virtual pin. Software Development International is written and edited by
pragmatic professionals who put theory into practice every day, out there on
the front lines of the revolution amid the customers and the deadlines.
God, I feel good about myself. You, you're a hero too. We're all heroes.
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Mark Smith Canon Research Centre Europe
smith@canon.co.uk 19 Frederick Sanger Road
..ukc!uos-ee!canon!smith Guildford Surrey UK
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"We always planned to ease ourselves into pure research anyway..."
-- David Cronenberg's _Dead Ringers_