> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Jecel Assumpcao Jr [SMTP:jecel at merlintec.com]
> Sent:	Saturday, May 13, 2000 2:29 PM
> To:	squeak at cs.uiuc.edu
> Subject:	Re: idle speculation (was: Face down, nine-edge first)
> 
> That is my point - we still suffer from the early popularity of half
> baked ideas. Were we just unlucky or was that the inescapable path of
> computer evolution (and the sad rule of mainframe->mini->micro
> recapitulation)?
> 
I'd say that the fault lies not in our stars, but in our wallets.  8-bit
S-100 bus microcomputers were relatively cheap and widely available, and
thus had a pretty broad following.  Advanced machines such as the Alto were
expensive and not available to the average hacker-on-the-street, so they
didn't generate much in the way of broad appeal.  I'm reminded of a an
excerpt from "Thomas the Rhymer":

	O see ye not yon narrow road
	So thick beset with thorns and briars
	That is the path of righteousness
	Tho after it but few enquires

	And see ye not that braid, braid road
	That lies across the lily leven?
	That is the path of wickedness
	Tho some call it the road to heaven

	And see ye not that bonny road
	That winds about the fernie brae?
	That is the road to fair Elfland
	Where thou and I this night maun gae

I'm still looking for the computing equivalent of that last road.  :-)

Bob Jarvis
Compuware @ Timken