Re: Imprinting (so-called)

["Arlen P. Walker" <Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- COM>]

      Just yesterday, the people I share an office with -- an MBA and an EE
      grad -- failed, in 15 or 20 minutes of searching with the latest tools,
      to find a file the name of which the MBA had forgotten. I got out my disk
      of ages-old MS-DOS utilities and found the file in five minutes or so.

And I could do it with a tool which we just purchased. It's just proof that what
matters isn't the age of the tool, but its appropriateness for the job. Even an
ancient, venerable screwdriver isn't going to be of much use if what you want to
do doesn't involve screws.

Age is irrelevant. ASCII, with its limited character set, will be as well, as
the world slouches toward Unicode. What matters is how well the tool does it's
job, and if I had been "imprinted" by any of the first three or four systems I
have used (though I still will admit to fondness for both the PDP-11 and the
Honeywell 6080) I would not be able to do my job, no matter that these tools
were both popular and solid in their day.

Newer doesn't imply better, but neither does older.

Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 124

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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