>>>>> "DW" == David Wright <deb...@lionunicorn.co.uk> writes:
DW> I assume that you meant to write some derogatory verb at • or DW> else it got lost, as did your entire comment in the other two DW> versions I've received from you. I think that the original tale referred to their secretaries, and no, it was never meant to be derogatory, anyone who understand what happens around in the workplace KNOWS how fundamental is their co-operation. I also think that that was an example of "people who thought it whould have been impossible for them to write even the easiest program". As an example, my mother -yes she was a secretary- had her typewriter replaced by one of those "videotyping" (I am translating the "videoscrittura" term used then in Italy) in the early nineties. Those were PCs within a typewriter, I suppose my mom received some sort of CP/M with a word processor in a rom. It was very like a "tv typewriter". O.K., that was a typewriter, a tool she felt confident, so just asked me a little help. But it had command sequences that were more user unfriendly than mainframe commands. But, it was a typewriter, she had no problem to use it. (later "videoscrittura" machies from Olivetti were indeed DOS-PC in a typewriter case, I saw people play Arkanoid with them) Some ten years later, "videoscrittura" sets where completly replaced by general purpose PCs with [you can guess the software suite]. But those were "computers" not "typewriters", and my mother feared them, she wrongly feels herself unfit for those machines. I think that having such persons create some sort of automation whould avoid "scaring" words, not because "they can't" but because they wrongly think "they can't". -- /\ ___ Ubuntu: ancient /___/\_|_|\_|__|___Gian Uberto Lauri_____ African word //--\| | \| | Integralista GNUslamico meaning "I can \/ coltivatore diretto di software not install già sistemista a tempo (altrui) perso... Debian" Warning: gnome-config-daemon considered more dangerous than GOTO