Weird | Funny | Strange | Workplace | Software Development

Weird Workplace 10: The Version Control Nightmare

Back in the 80s, my boss had an ‘interesting’ approach to software development

Introduction

This is part of a series of articles connected with my old workplace. I spent 20 years there, starting in the 80s when I left college.

John owned and ran two businesses. His background was in engineering and electronics, and I worked for his electronics company.

I’ve tried to keep this story as non-technical as possible. I apologise in advance if the mention of programming puts you off, and I want to assure you that I still have plenty more non-technical tales in the pipeline.

Image created by the author, Autistic Widower.

The Version Control Nightmare

About a year before I started working for John, he’d started selling equipment to print batch numbers and expiry dates on labels in factories.

Each system used an Apple II computer, and an off-the-shelf dot matrix printer mechanism and driver circuit, which he packaged in his own enclosure.

He’d written some software in BASIC to allow workers to control the printer and keep records on disk.