Software Scotland – Z is for ZX Spectrum

Aaaah the ZX spectrum the seed that created countless Software Developers in Scotland. Now that was an operating system.

Software Scotland – Y is for Y2K

Who can forget those anxiety ridden days as countless software developers in Scotland counted up to 2000 for inflated salaries.

Software Scotland – X is for XML

Extensible Mark Up language has provided the structure to the HTML internet world that was badly needed. Back in 2000 we used XML to create an n-tier internet system to provide e-commerce on NCR ATMs (using Java on os/2) as software programmers in Scotland we were leading edge.

Software Scotland – W is for Wolfson Microelectronics

Darlings of the Scottish Investment community Wolfson house a number of highly talented software developers in Scotland. Creating the embedded software required by their integrated circuits.

Software Scotland – V is for VB

Visual Basic was a revelation it allowed software developers in Scotland to create intuitive software systems quickly and easily. Now VB is a staple of the .Net world.

Software Scotland – U is for Use Case

Use Case is all about specifying software systems. For software developers in Scotland in the past it was a rare treat to be able to use “Use Case” on a green field site. Often it was the reverse engineering talents that were more important.

Software Scotland – T is for Tape Back Up

For software developers in Scotland its just a matter of time before Software backups using Tape becomes a thing of the past. Remote backup for Software if secure is much more sensible and reliable – Tape Backup will soon be a thing of the past.

Software Scotland – S is for Silicon Glen

Silicon Glen was the marketing folks attempt at promoting Scotland as Silicon Valley.

For software developers in Scotland it did not last long as Silicon Valley was typically populated by overseas assembly plants that shipped out when the economic situation changed.

Software Scotland – R is for RMX

RMX simple but rock solid. Used on Intel platforms by many software developers in Scotland RMX was predictable and as I recall completely defect free.

Software Scotland – Q is for QOS

With all this Voice Over IP telephony stuff we need to remember that Quality counts. Quality of Service measures the quality of the traffice (voice or otherwise that you get down your internet line).

Software developers in Scotland don’t always have access to the same speed of access as our counterparts in the USA which can be frustrating. So as we roll out more and more VoIP systems expect QoS to drop.

Software Scotland – P is for PLM

PLM a realtime language used in industry and by Software developers in Scotland for many years. Similar in structure to PASCAL it was simple to understand if perhaps limited in syntax.

Software Scotland – O is for Operating System

A good operating system makes all the difference but sometimes the best ones don’t win through. For many years programmers in Scotland used os/2 – complex but rock solid. With Windows coming along os/2 faded, but it took many years for Windows to catch up with the capability of os/2.

Software Scotland – N is for NCR

A software company of renown in Scotland NCR produced countless talented software engineers in Scotland with real-time, Os/2 and windows expertise. A shadow of their former self now in Scotland they still dominated the ATM market in the UK and overseas.

Software Scotland – M is for Microsoft

Where would we be without Microsoft…. Software developers in Scotland rely on the systems day in day out. Without Microsoft we’d probably all be using Apple Macs and our offices would be prettier.

Software Scotland – L is for Laptop

Laptops have become the essential tool for all of us – not just software developers in Scotland. Not so long ago (20 years ago) 1 PC per desk was only starting to become a reality – now it’s a PC with huge power that gets lugged around on the shoulder. Not bad.

Software Scotland – K is for KiloByte

Do you remember when hard disk space was measured in KiloBytes – hard to believe now. Programmers now expect endless disk space and memory availability making us all (even software developers in Scotland) a lot more lazy than we should be.

Software Scotland – J is for Java

Java and the virtual machine it can inhabit is a world changing language. Using it within os/2 we changed the ATM world for a while from a small software development company in Scotland. Adding internet capability to os/2 ATMs caused a stir for a while.

Software Scotland – I is for ICE

In circuit emualtors are a rare site in most software companies in Scotland but not so long ago they were an essential tool to debug and program Intel processors for programmers in Scotland.

Software Scotland – H is for HTML

Hyper Text Mark Up Language is an odd language that has changed software in Scotland significantly. Without it we wouldn’t have the rich web world we have today.

Software Scotland – G is for Google

In a short space of time Google have risen to dominate the world of search and now are beginning to create data that is there own property – maps of the world, even street maps. From the world of Software development in Scotland the only thing to do is use the services provided to get Software Scotland on the map.

Software Scotland – F is for Ferranti

No longer recognised by that name Ferranti were famous for recruiting many Software programmers in Scotland. Realtime programmers working for the defence sector were common not so long ago though numbers are now much diminished.

Software Scotland – E is for Embedded

For many years local Industry used software programmers in Scotland to write real time programs to operate in industrial environments. Assembly and machine code programmers in Scotland developed strong machine level skills to deliver the applications required.

Software Scotland – D is for Dongle

Initially dongles (as I recall) were used to ensure you couldn’t rip off expensive CAD software – they were not popular and were often cracked. In Scotland software companies now use them as a matter of course to protect comms and access to online banking applications.

Software Scotland – C is for C

Software in Scotland has been dominated by c, c++ and now c#. Flexible and efficient at times impenetrable c has created software jobs for software programmers in Scotland for years. C# looks set to ensure that the demand for c programmers in Scotland will continue.

Software Scotland – B is for Bill

Where would we be with the now retired (well almost) king of Microsoft Bill Gates. His drive and business capability has changed the world and of course along with it Scotland’s software industry (perhaps he even helped create it).

He was involved in IBM’s DOS and IBM’s os/2 before ditching that partnership to get it on with Windows. Software developers in Scotland owe a lot to Bill.

Software Scotland – A is for Apple

It seems a long time ago when Windows didn’t exist. But before Windows there were other drag and drop GUIs such as that provided by Steve Jobs at Apple. Indeed the various pitched fights between Apple and Microsoft were loud and aggressive, even from the relative distance of us developing software in Scotland back in the late 80’s.

Today Apple dominate a world distinctly different from the world that Micros0ft dominates and they do so with the style and flair that was evident in even their earlier desk top operating systems.

GUI interfaces? My first experience was GEM – it puzzled me as I didn’t have a mouse.