Posted on 04/17/2017 10:17:26 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Solitaire has been a staple for office distraction since Microsoft first included the game in Windows 3.0 in 1990. But the digital adaptation wasn’t made by an iconic coder or just one of the company’s many full-time employees. It was programmed by an intern.
Great Big Story has an interview with Wes Cherry, who was an intern at Microsoft in 1988. He describes the experience as “all-encompassing,” but even internships at Microsoft have lulls. He put the downtime to good use. “I came up with the idea to write Solitaire for Windows out of boredom, really,” Cherry said. “There weren’t many games at the time, so we had to make them.”
In the digital version of this classic card game, players use a mouse to drag and drop cards by suit. If you successfully complete a game, your prize is a cascade of cards.
Cherry’s game got an official blessing from Bill Gates himself (though Gates’ “biggest complaint was that Solitaire was too hard to win”), and it became a staple of Microsoft’s operating system. “Microsoft officially said that Solitaire was there to teach people how to use the mouse, but in reality it was just something to have fun with,” he said. Cherry even had added a special “boss key” that would pop up a fake spreadsheet for crafty office workers slacking, but Microsoft nixed it.
The real kicker of this story is that, despite its long-standing success, Cherry said he “was not paid a single cent.” He’s since moved on from computer work to owning a cidery.
Another video at site.
So that’s the guy who got me addicted.
(It was a good way to learn the mouse, though.)
the maker of spider solitaire should be thrown in prison for abuse- can’t hardly ever win that one-
Uhhhh NO.
Reddit was formed in 2005. He wasn’t reading redditt in 1990. sorry this is fake news.
“The real kicker of this story is that, despite its long-standing success, Cherry said he “was not paid a single cent.””
Does the author mean Cherry wasn’t paid during his internship or does the author mean Microsoft didn’t pay him a bonus for the success of the program over time? What was the employment agreement between Cherry and Microsoft? Assuming Microsoft fulfilled its side of the employment agreement, Cherry has no legitimate complaint.
You incorrectly read it. The intern in 1990. That intern is not the author of this piece, which is made quite clear. The author of this piece is saying all she ever did was browse Reddit. She is comparing and contrasting herself.Basic reading comprehension. You owe a big time fake news apology.
One of the most overused words today. I know it shouldn't, but it annoys me no end.
I get it.
Is the author stating he was an intern in 2005 and did nothing useful, wasting his time on Reddit?
double deck Spider is my favorite
I want to write a new programming language. I’m going to call it “Iconic”.
Then anyone can be an iconic coder.
the spider that first appeared in windows xp i believe it was (I am using it on windows 7 dual boot system)= is nearly impossible to win- I switched OS’s to linux recently, and what a difference in the solitaire- I can actually win a few even though I gotta jump through hoops to get there on soem of them- but that’s what makes it a challenge- I went back to the spider one and nope- it’s too dang frustratin not being able to win at least once in awhile-
Are you using it in windows 10? Or 7? Didn’t know there was a windows double decker one- I’m talking about the standard one that came with windows 7- I’ll have to check out the double decker one- might be at least winnable lol
They stripped all games off at work so now I just surf FR all day...
Until XP, I maintained a separate machine with each version of windows and DOS. My workshop was full but it was fun to watch the young folks go back in time. From XP on, it was no longer fun so I scrapped it all. Sometimes wish I had kept it
Huh? I scanned the piece several times and found no reference to Reddit. What have I missed?
It’s only in the sub headline.
Pegged it. Knew that was coming.
I was going to call 'fake news' because Solitaire was developed in 1988 but Reddit wasn't founded until 2005, but then I went to the original article, and it was the author who only browsed Reddit during her internship.
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