B5000 and ``Second System Effect''

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#4377

From: jo... John Shipman
Date: Tue, 04 Sep 1990 23:24

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I heard a story once about the development of the Burroughs
B5000, and I was hoping that someone here could confirm or
deny its authenticity.

Rumor has it that at a certain point in the development of
the system software for this machine (in the early 1960's),
a manager came in one night and destroyed all the copies of
the specifications and software, including backups.  He did
this deliberately in order to encourage the so-called
``second system effect,'' so that the software developers
would keep the parts of the design that were done right,
yet have a chance to re-do the klugey parts correctly.

Is this actually true?  Were any of you readers there then?
-- 
John Shipman/Zoological Data Processing/Socorro, NM/jo...@jupiter.nmt.edu
``Let's go outside and commiserate with nature.''  --Dave Farber

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From: jo...@nmt.edu (John Shipman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: B5000 and ``Second System Effect''
Message-ID: <1990Sep4.232403.12326@nmt.edu>
Date: 4 Sep 90 23:24:03 GMT
Organization: Zoological Data Processing
Lines: 17
Posted: Wed Sep  5 00:24:03 1990
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