Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!uwmcsd1!uxc!tank!oddjob!mimsy!chris
From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: software analogy
Message-ID: <13744@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 26 Sep 88 18:16:00 GMT
References: <891@taux01.UUCP> <650004@hpclscu.HP.COM> <9443@cup.portal.com>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 15

In article <9443@cup.portal.com> bcase@cup.portal.com writes:
>... Whenever I tell a layperson (but computer user) that I have been
>working on a way to let new computers run old software, they ask why it
>hasn't always been that way....  Think of software for computers as
>gasoline for automobiles and you understand why the layperson is mad
>that IBM PCs can't run Apple software!  What would you think if Arco
>gasoline only worked in economy cars!

You just need to tell them that software is not like gasoline.  (Electric
power is like gasoline :-) .)  Software is like . . .

	Spark plugs!
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris