× The internal search function is temporarily non-functional. The current search engine is no longer viable and we are researching alternatives.
As a stop gap measure, we are using Google's custom search engine service.
If you know of an easy to use, open source, search engine ... please contact support@midrange.com.



> IBM always did it backward.  The secret labs had cool project names like
> Pacific and Silverlake.  When marketing got hold of them, they became
> System/38 and Application Server/400.  Everybody else has
> secret project S38495-j until marketing christens it something like
> 'Oracle'.

Part of that has to do with the sort of "more-military-than-the-military"
mindset of IBM, and partly it's because IBM is one of those companies that
has no sense of humor when it comes to product naming.

Many years ago, I worked for Oxxi, a publisher of software for the
Commodore Amiga. At the time, we were publishing Marco Papa's "A-Talk"
terminal emulation and file transfer program. (This was back before
everybody and his dog had TCP stacks on their computers, back when, if
people had Internet access at all, it was almost always through "shell"
accounts, and when files were transmitted with protocols like Kermit and
XModem.

The scripting language of A-Talk eventually became rich enough that a very
crude BBS could be implemented in it. I developed such a script, which we
bundled with the product as an example of what it could do. With my usual
dry wit, I called the example script "BORED," and made the sign-on request
message "Hello, I'm Bored. Please sign on."

Marco, the author of A-Talk loved it. So did the President of Oxxi (who
was also chairman of the board, and principal stockholder). The script
example, that is. But the boss didn't like the name (Marco didn't, as I
recall, have a problem with it, though), and changed it. to "MiniBBS."

So much for humorous and creative program naming.

--
JHHL



As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

This thread ...

Replies:

Follow On AppleNews
Return to Archive home page | Return to MIDRANGE.COM home page

This mailing list archive is Copyright 1997-2024 by midrange.com and David Gibbs as a compilation work. Use of the archive is restricted to research of a business or technical nature. Any other uses are prohibited. Full details are available on our policy page. If you have questions about this, please contact [javascript protected email address].

Operating expenses for this site are earned using the Amazon Associate program and Google Adsense.