[Wuli]

Thanks for a great post on an important piece of history - those that started the “technology” industrial revolution.

Just reading your post, and watching the video, and then taking just one figure, like Jean Sammet, and discovering all her history, is like being an observer to a great “birthing” with tons of “midwives” figuring out how to get it out of our creative brains into reality.

[mairdie]

I encourage everyone to collect their memories and make them available for computer historians. We’re getting computer history museums and keeping things is important.

I put up my memories of the Ada DoD-I contest.

The competition for Ada eventually pared down to the Red, Blue, Green and Yellow languages. Then to Red and Green. We were the Red team at Intermetrics, and this was our second language design. Unlike Green (which won), we threw out our language completely from the 4 language contest and came up with this design just at the deadline for the 2 language contest. Unfortunately, everyone spent that part of the design phase assuming Green would win and preparing the textbooks and college classes. At the vote, which was required to be unanimous, the AF sent someone with no knowledge of the contest who was instructed to vote for Green and not to change their vote. The member from Defense Communications was physically shaking because he, and many others who read our book when it came out, were for Red.

http://www.iment.com/maida/computer/redref/index.htm

This was our reference manual.

http://www.iment.com/maida/computer/redref/toc.htm

And this was our rationale document

http://www.iment.com/maida/computer/redrat/toc.htm

And these were the requirements we worked to:

http://www.iment.com/maida/computer/requirements/strawman.htm

Now get your own historical memories out so they won’t be lost!!!!!