The Graphing Calculator Story (2004)

Most recent discussion three months ago (133 points, 21 comments):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16780276

Copying dang's comment from there to here:

Posted many times but no discussion in the last few years, so this is ok. Previous discussions:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7680696

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3176595

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1584501

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1741

This is beautiful, amazing story that is wildly illegal, but I can't help to envy their determination and wit.

> We wanted to release a Windows version as part of Windows 98, but sadly, Microsoft has effective building security.

Funny enough, as an intern at Microsoft I once forgot my badge and no one would let me in the building. Another time, after lunch I tried to trail a group of people into my building and one of them turned around and asked to see my badge.

This software rocketed me down my personal journey in mathematics at escape velocity. I first got to play with it on some PowerPC macs in the library at Davidson College. I was 12 years old and just beginning with algebra and geometry. Once I had discovered it, I would spend hours down there just playing with it. Couldn't pull myself away. My only experience had been the boring, limited TI-82.

Being able to directly key in the functions to graph was cool enough. Having them come up instantly and being able to zoom and identify maxima, minima and inflection points with the mouse was awesome. Then one day I was like "hmm, I wonder what happens if I put y and x on the same side of the equation"?

Mind. Blown.

I gained insights playing with this tool that lasted me all the way through high school and well into my minor concentration in university. I doubt my story is unique. Thanks, PacificTech.

You know, the last few times I've read this, I've focused on the wonder of making an unauthorized project happen inside a large organization on the strength of personal vision and a generally untapped reserve of goodwill towards something that had clear value (and a little extra caché).

But this time, I noticed the commentary about how good software isn't just about the primary developers:

"we couldn't get it done alone. Creating sophisticated software requires a team effort.... Making software that is simultaneously easy to learn, easy to use, friendly, useful, and powerful takes people with an incredible combination of skills, talent, and artistry working together with intensity and patience. Greg and I could do the core engineering, but that was a far cry from creating a finished product.

"Among other things, we needed ...[1]... professional quality assurance (QA), the difficult and time-consuming testing that would show us the design flaws and implementation bugs we couldn't see in our own work ...[2]... help writing software to draw the three-dimensional images that our software produced.

"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."

(heavily edited for emphasis)

Google tech talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl643JFJWig

I love reading this story. Whenever it pops up on HN or Reddit it's such a motivational read. Sometimes people involved will jump in the comment section to add details which helps document the lore of one of the best early computing stories.

Click on the (pacifict.com) on the HN title and you will see this story has appeared here many times, there are lots of great comments in many of those appearances.

I don't think this guy understands what skunkworks means.

He should have made it open-source rather than rely on Apple. Most of it had to be re-written anyhow between demo and final product, as I read it. It sounds like many things almost went wrong, between being ratted on, IP lawsuits, no office space, immature hardware, etc. Open-source would have avoided most of this risk.