When thinking about if we&#x27;ve improved or not, I like to point out stuff like this, from <i>1976</i>:<p>&quot;My name is Marian Goldeen. I&#x27;m an eight grade student at Jordan Junior High School in Palo Alto, California, and I would like to tell you about how I got started working with computers at Xerox, <i>and the class I taught</i>.<p>It all started in Dcember, 1973, when I was in the seventh grade. (...)&quot;<p>(My emphasis)
<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.atariarchives.org&#x2F;bcc1&#x2F;showpage.php?page=61" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.atariarchives.org&#x2F;bcc1&#x2F;showpage.php?page=61</a><p>Now, after reading that, are you proud at how far we&#x27;ve come in 40 years? I think we&#x27;re doing rather poorly, and I believe the VPRI folks (and now this new project) is part of how we might do better.<p>I just wish these people would&#x2F;could be more generous with throwing code out there for people to run and play with. I&#x27;m not sure if it&#x27;s a culture thing, a funding thing, or a bit of both -- I understand that a presenting a coherent whole can be more powerful than small ideas, but whenever I read the VPRI articles, I always feel there&#x27;s too little code to play with. I want more! :-)<p>By the way, there&#x27;s lots of interesting stuff in that archive[a], like:<p>&quot;Is Breaking Into A Timesharing System A Crime?&quot;
<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.atariarchives.org&#x2F;bcc1&#x2F;showpage.php?page=4" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.atariarchives.org&#x2F;bcc1&#x2F;showpage.php?page=4</a><p>And in fairness, we <i>have</i> seen some improvements:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.atarimagazines.com&#x2F;compute&#x2F;issue1&#x2F;3159_1_THREE_WORD_PROCESSORS_A_USER_MANUAL_OF_REVIEWS.php" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.atarimagazines.com&#x2F;compute&#x2F;issue1&#x2F;3159_1_THREE_WO...</a><p>[a] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.atarimagazines.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.atarimagazines.com&#x2F;</a>