[TUHS] Anyone ever heard of teaching a case study of Initial Unix?

[A. P. Garcia]

On Wed, Jul 3, 2024, 1:17 AM <sjenkin at canb.auug.org.au> wrote:

> I’ve never heard of a Computer Science or Software Engineering program
> that included a ‘case study’ component, especially for Software
> Development & Projects.
>
> <snip>
>
> Developers of Initial Unix arguably were 10x-100x more productive than IBM
> OS/360, a ‘best practice’ development at the time,
> so what CSRC did differently is worth close examination.
>
> I’ve not seen examined the role of the ‘capability’ of individual
> contributors, the collaborative, collegiate work environment
> and the ‘context’, a well funded organisation not dictating deadlines or
> product specifications for researchers.
>
> <snip>


I haven't heard of such a case study either. But you reminded me of an
analogy I once read. Please forgive me if my memory is incorrect or
incomplete.

I believe I read it in the book "The Supermen", and the idea might be
attributed to Seymour Cray. The basic idea was that any technical problem
can be solved with a shovel, where the sharpness of the blade represents
the astuteness of the people working on it, and the force applied to the
handle is how much money you throw at it. A bit simplistic, perhaps, but I
think there's also a lot of truth in it.
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