[ruby-talk:13002] Re: Deja vu?

A somewhat off-topic coffee break...

Andy Hunt wrote:
# <[e-mail]> wrote:
# > From: Andrew Hunt <[e-mail]>
# > > "Eating one's own dog food" is always good advice in technology...

Absolutely! 

I sure wouldn't want to get a heart transplant from any surgeon who was so 
unsure about their skills that they hadn't even replaced their own ticker 
with their own hands. I'd want someone with *real* confidence in their 
technical skills. :-) 

And who would ever trust a mortician whose arteries weren't flowing with 
formaldehyde? :-)

# > Yes, I love that quote... who said that originally?
# 
# Not too sure -- it's quoted in "All I Really Need to Know in
# Business I Learned at Microsoft: Insider Strategies for Success" by
# Julie Bick, explaining it as a popular Microsoft philosophy; it's
# attributed in some places to Microsoft's Gorden Bell.

FWIW, I think that is a very much cleaned-up version of a much older
saying from the MIC that alluded to military cooking, but I don't have
any references. I wouldn't be surprised if the origins were
considerably earlier than this.

# Which makes sense, if anyone could see the analogy between "dog
# food" and "software", it would be Microsoft :-)

So, you think you're joking, huh? Just read what Oracle at Google
has to say about this (among other things). :-)

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/trial/transcripts/dec98/12-03-pm.asp

[... top of page 35 ...]

     1  DOCUMENT, DR. GOSLING, EXHIBIT 2012, SUN HAD NO 100

     2  PERCENT PURE JAVA PROGRAMS THAT IT HAD DEVELOPED, THAT HAD

     3  BEEN CERTIFIED AS HUNDRED PERCENT PURE.

     4  A.   YEAH, I DON'T THINK--I DON'T KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THE

     5  STATE WAS.  I KNOW WE EARLY ON DIDN'T FEEL ANY PARTICULAR

     6  COMPULSION OR NEED TO PASS OUR PROGRAMS THROUGH THIS

     7  CERTIFICATION PROCESS.

     8  Q.   ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE PHRASE "EATING ONE'S OWN

     9  DOG FOOD"?

    10  A.   I HAVE CERTAINLY HEARD THAT.

    11  Q.   WOULD YOU LOOK AT PAGE THREE OF EXHIBIT 2012, PLEASE.

    12  THIS IS THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF MR. GANS'S PRESENTATION.

    13  "JAVASOFT PRODUCTS ARE CURRENTLY NOT REQUIRED TO BE

    14  CERTIFIED AS 100 PERCENT PURE; I.E., WE DON'T EAT OUR OWN

    15  DOG FOOD."

    16           DO YOU SEE THAT?

    17  A.   YES.

    18  Q.   AND THEN BELOW, "THERE ARE PLANNED JAVA EXTENSIONS

    19  WHICH"--HE'S TALKING HERE ABOUT WHAT WE REFERRED TO AS THE

    20  ADD-ON CLASSES OR ADD-ON API'S; CORRECT?

    21  A.   I DON'T KNOW THAT THAT'S WHAT HE MEANS.

    22  Q.   --"WHICH WILL BE DIFFICULT OR IMPOSSIBLE TO IMPLEMENT

    23  IN PURE JAVA.  HEADS UP, THIS BREAKS WRITE ONCE RUNS

    24  ANYWHERE."

[...]


Conrad Schneiker
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