My skunkworks project was beginning to look real with help from these professionals as well as others in graphic design, documentation, programming, mathematics, and user interface. The secret to programming is not intelligence, though of course that helps. It is not hard work or experience, though they help, too. The secret to programming is having smart friends.
The Graphing Calculator Story
Von und über einen Entwickler, der ohne angestellt oder beauftragt zu sein, in einem Apple Büro eine schöne Anwendung schrieb, von der keiner wissen durfte.
In October, when we thought we were almost finished, engineers who had been helping us had me demonstrate our software to their managers. A dozen people packed into my office. I didn’t expect their support, but I felt obliged to make a good-faith effort to go through their official channels. I gave a twenty-minute demonstration, eliciting „oohs“ and „ahhs.“ Afterward, they asked, „Who do you report to? What group are you in? Why haven’t we seen this earlier?“ I explained that I had been sneaking into the building and that the project didn’t exist. They laughed, until they realized I was serious. Then they told me, „Don’t repeat this story.“
The Graphing Calculator Story