Memo to the readers.

Software Thirty Years On

When some thirty one years ago Software World and Database & Network Journal were founded as subscription publications, it was against the publishing background of free editorial information sponsored by advertising, a new idea at the time, similar to the Open Sources concept on the Internet today.

The Concept

Coming as a physicist from an aviation background, via electronics, control systems and primitive computing, it seemed to me that man was successfully replicating himself in electromechanical format, and the next step would be to simulate the brain and nervous system. Software World was given the task of discussing industrial applications of software, including management and production in its broadest sense, whilst Database & Network journal considered the developments in the storage of information, including its collection, and distribution.

The Present

Over the last thirty years the changes in computing technology have been stupendous, though at the cost of the freedom enjoyed by the original programmers who hand crafted their own programs, within the severe restrictions applied by the limited storage and processor speed of the computers of those times.

'Applications,' now are prefabricated to suit specific tasks, which if they are applicable, save a prodigious amount of time. Individual programs, such as wizards, are particularly useful, providing the user accepts their limited mode of operations. 'Solutions' are assiduously promoted by Public Relations organisations continuously search of new superlatives. Functions are 'leveraged', operations performed 'by a single click', etc. etc. The application user once entrapped into Version 1.0 of a program is a sucker for upgrades to Versions 2.0 followed by 3.0 and so on, each one offering more of what used to be called 'Bells and Whistles'.

Originally, business software designed to replace hand clerical business processes, bore an identifiable resemblance to the original task. Now the cart drives the horse, business and management software drives the the 'Enterprise,' from the control of production processes, to the strategy of marketing the product, the management of orders, together with the logistics of despatch and delivery. Who would have thought that GIS or Geographical Information Systems developed for observing hostile missile silos would one day ensure the spot-on delivery of a pizza! To serve the business model people are displaced or by-passed, no longer employees but ciphers in the HR (Human Resource) software. The human role is being reduced to one of intervention when the system fails, or goes off course.

From an observers viewpoint the software industry is like a frenetic stage show where act follows act, each one performed in a dialect as temporary as the performance, the whole conducted by the promoters in the manner of the Master of Ceremonies of an Old Time Music Hall. The audience sit gripped by the need for sensation. Will Jack Linux bring Giant Gates crashing down the beanstalk? Will Microsoft produce another operating system out of a hat, before their very eyes?

The Future

Whilst there are many negatives in the influence of computers on society, the greatest achievement of contemporary software is to enable the machine to store and retrieve current knowledge for re-assessment in the future, when researchers can re-appraise their knowledge in comparison with that of the past, using an Internet system far in advance of the one with which we are familiar.

Ed Patterson 

Editor