Retro Man Stories - Rewriting Boss’s Code
I don’t use retro tech in my modern life, but I did live through the era we all look back on fondly. Here is one such story.
I’m new on the job. First week my boss comes in “I’ve started this app, I want you to finish it”. I take a look and say, “I can rewrite it in an hour”.
Yeah. Really smart thing to say to your new boss. He’s labored on code, doesn’t want me to simply discard it like dog poo. “Don’t rewrite it, just finish it”.
An hour later I walk into his office - “Take a look, I completed the app”. Of course I had rewritten it and threw away hours of his work as dog poo. But, the app was finished, and far better than what he had put together.
“Alright Lee, we get it - AI makes you productive”. But no - this is a Retro Man story. This occurred in 1990ish. I was working in Foxbase (not even Foxpro) (dBase/Clipper/Foxbase). Was I some genius programmer? Yes, but that’s not how I rewrote the whole app from scratch in an hour. I used a code generator - Fox Express, if I remember right.
I had come across it on Compu-Serve. I talked to the dev regularly.
“But code generators write generic ‘same same’ apps.” Yep.
“But code generators mean you don’t know how to code”. Nope.
It didn’t handle parent/child screens well. So I dug in, solved the problem and came out with my own product, an add-on, Fox Assist. I sold it for $50, and would receive checks in the mail from all over the world. Guam, Germany stand out in my mind. This was pre world-wide web, and pre-OpenSource. I even spoke at a Fox Express conference presenting my add-on.
And yes, this does relate to AI today, 36 years in the future. It’s the same story, different tool. I’m attracted to tools that give me leverage to produce more rapidly. And I get involved and make the tools better.
At least my boss took only about 30 seconds to go from “I don’t want my code thrown away” to “yeah, that’s a lot better and done much quicker”.
