Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/09/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Mike, No problem -- I was about to point out the Gates did not invent Basic -- he merely coded versions of it for little computers. Squeezing compilers that work into 4K bytes is not easy. Nowadays, the credits and licence can be larger than that! This puts him in an exclusive (I think) class of 2 people - -- heads of major companies who have personally written code that had an impact on the industry. I agree about the company -- being able to write code, and being able to architect operating systems and manage large numbers of people to develop them are unrelated skills. SUN and Apple have both successfully put competitors that attempted to horn in on their markets out of business -- both using questionable tactics. It is only the success of Microsoft that stopped them from being accused as monopolists. To get back on topic, for anyone who has read this far -- Leica Northvale has told me that they do expect to get parts to upgrade the M6 TTL from Germany -- but not until mid-late November. Get on the waiting list. At 06:43 PM 9/28/2003, Mike Quinn wrote: >Clive, > >My reply was an inexcusable cheap shot. Sorry. >Most of what you point out makes sense. >You were right to call me out on it. > >Gates definitely made significant contributions during the formative years >of the computer industry. But I'll stick to my belief that the success of >his company is due much more to monopolistic and exclusionary tactics than >to programming excellence. > >Enjoyed your "velvet case" analogy. Hope MS wasn't listening... > >Mike Quinn - -- Clive http://clive.moss.net - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html