Signaling NaNs Rise Again

[Walter Bright]

Paul D. Anderson wrote:
> Walter Bright Wrote:
>> It's interesting because it's right before computers moved in and 
>> replaced everything. If I'd stayed another year, I'd have bought
>> (with my own funds) a desktop computer and put it on my desk. I'm
>> sure that within 2 years Boeing would have automatically supplied
>> me with one.
> 
> Hmmm... I'm trying to recall when it was that Boeing started
> "automatically" supplying desktop PCs. I know they didn't do that
> when I started here (1985). I know they first started supplying the
> office assistants (they were "secretaries" back then) with Wang word
> processors not too long after I started. I seem to recall my boss
> getting a  PC at some point. I can't recall exactly when, but it had
> to be five years or more after that.
> 
> I was hired at Boeing as a software engineer (my degree is in
> mechanical engineering) so I always had access to a computer, but it
> was always either a computer for the system we were designing or it
> was test support equipment. But a desktop computer for general use
> didn't occur for a long time.

When I was there the Wangs were in a separate, locked room. The 
operators had to go through a Wang training course, and then they 
"Wanged" full time. I picked up the Wang manual and started using one in 
about 5 minutes, which really annoyed the manager of the Wang pool.

(The managers of these fiefdoms worked hard at creating a mythology 
around their priestesses of the Wangs. In reality, it wasn't harder than 
any J-random text editor.)

I had blustered my way into the Wang pool because I was expected to 
handwrite the whole document and then hand it over to a Wang priestess 
to Wang it in. No way was I going to waste time doing that.