1 Dec
1998
1 Dec
'98
3:44 a.m.
And on the same topic, didn't DECUS provide free
(or low cost) software
applications? Did the same mentality apply to that, or did the letters "DEC"
tend to give more credibility to that software?
DECUS distributes (and has distributed) software that others wrote and
put into the public domain. *Very* roughly speaking, DECUS-distributed
software can be split into two groups:
1. Software that DEC employees wrote on DEC time, and which DEC put
into the public domain so that DECUS could distribute it. BLISS-32
is a recent example. Often these are tools that were used internally
to DEC for development purposes, which they don't want to turn into
commercially supported products, but they recognize the great usefulness
of these tools.
2. Software that random ordinary users wrote and gave to DECUS to
distribute.
Keep in mind that "random ordinary users" in the 1960's or 1970's
often means something very different than it does today. Also, DECUS
is a different organization today than it was 10 or 20 or 30 years
ago.
You might want to browse through the VMS-oriented DECUS submissions
at http://www.decus.org/ , or the PDP-11 oriented DECUS submissions at
http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/academic/computer-science/history/pdp-11/decus/
and view the wide range of stuff available, and the wide range of
sources that it comes from!
--
Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/
7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917
Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927