Perhaps you are aware of the fact that there is an oddly popular trivia game floating around that a group of clever (and likely bored) college...
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As one who lived and worked in this field through the era that Kidder described, I can tell you that his book totally and accurately captures it. Whether from the marketing standpoint, the business standpoint, the historical standpoint, or (the focus of the book) the engineering development and people standpoint, he got it onto the page. It is also a fun, interesting, and even suspenseful read. As its NY Times reviewer said (as quoted on the flyleaf of the hardback) it is understandable even if you are nontechnical and can't tell software from hardware. Kidder copyrighted it in 1981--the year the first IBM PC came out. It is thus really interesting to read this book from a 2007 perspective, since a lot of what has happened in the PC-microcomputer era is **just** like what Kidder described in 1981 at what turned out to be the end of the minicomputer era. Enjoy!!
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The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
from73, May 21, 2007
As one who lived and worked in this field through the era that Kidder described, I can tell you that his book totally and accurately captures it. Whether from the marketing standpoint, the business standpoint, the historical standpoint, or (the focus of the book) the engineering development and people standpoint, he got it onto the page. It is also a fun, interesting, and even suspenseful read. As its NY Times reviewer said (as quoted on the flyleaf of the hardback) it is understandable even if you are nontechnical and can't tell software from hardware. Kidder copyrighted it in 1981--the year the first IBM PC came out. It is thus really interesting to read this book from a 2007 perspective, since a lot of what has happened in the PC-microcomputer era is **just** like what Kidder described in 1981 at what turned out to be the end of the minicomputer era. Enjoy!!(15 of 23 readers found this comment helpful)