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Bill Atkinson is a programming god. He was such a pioneer in so many areas. He created QuickDraw, MacPaint and Hypercard! Is there nothing he can't do??? I wonder what his background was when he developed Quickdraw. Did he have any previous graphics experience? How much previous experience could you have when you're the one who created the graphic routines powering the Lisa/Mac?



"How many man-years did it take to write QuickDraw?", the Byte magazine reporter asked Steve.

Steve turned to look at Bill. "Bill, how long did you spend writing Quickdraw?"

"Well, I worked on it on and off for four years", Bill replied.

Steve paused for a beat and then turned back to the Byte reporter. "Twenty-four man-years. We invested twenty-four man-years in QuickDraw."

Obviously, Steve figured that one Atkinson year equaled six man years, which may have been a modest estimate.

http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Mythical_Man_Year.txt


But did Bill get 6 men's worth of pay? If the answer is no let that be a lesson to all super-talented/productive hackers out there whether you should strike it out on your man or work for The Man.




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