______ __
/ ____/___ _____/ /___ ______ ___
/ /_ / __ \/ ___/ __/ / / / __ \/ _ \
/ __/ / /_/ / / / /_/ /_/ / / / / __/
/_/ \____/_/ \__/\__,_/_/ /_/\___/
The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be
regarded as a criminal offense.
-- Edsger W. Dijkstra, SIGPLAN Notices, Volume 17, Number 5
The Fifth Rule:
You have taken yourself too seriously.
One of the questions that comes up all the time is: How
enthusiastic is our support for UNIX?
Unix was written on our machines and for our machines many
years ago. Today, much of UNIX being done is done on our machines.
Ten percent of our VAXs are going for UNIX use. UNIX is a simple
language, easy to understand, easy to get started with. It's great for
students, great for somewhat casual users, and it's great for
interchanging programs between different machines. And so, because of
its popularity in these markets, we support it. We have good UNIX on
VAX and good UNIX on PDP-11s.
It is our belief, however, that serious professional users will
run out of things they can do with UNIX. They'll want a real system and
will end up doing VMS when they get to be serious about programming.
With UNIX, if you're looking for something, you can easily and
quickly check that small manual and find out that it's not there. With
VMS, no matter what you look for -- it's literally a five-foot shelf of
documentation -- if you look long enough it's there. That's the
difference -- the beauty of UNIX is it's simple; and the beauty of VMS
is that it's all there.
-- Ken Olsen, President of DEC, 1984
Don't knock President Fillmore. He kept us out of Vietnam.
If anything can go wrong, it will.
Beware of low-flying butterflies.
For perfect happiness, remember two things:
(1) Be content with what you've got.
(2) Be sure you've got plenty.
I've seen better heads on half a pint of beer.
Thursday, 2 July 2026 Michael J. Chappell Contact me at:
mcsuper5@freeshell.org
