Richard Gambrell ([log in to unmask]) wrote:
: At the TCU broadcast today, HP is saying 2nd quarter of '96 for MPE/iX 5.5,
: which will have network printing *only* if you have Netware/iX.
: Later in '96, they will add, via an Express release, network printing via
: tcp/ip.
 
I've worked for HP for 12 years, and if there's one thing that I *hate* doing,
it's talking to customers about schedules.  The likelihood that what I'm saying
will turn out to be true is, um, unpredictable.  The problem is that software
engineering is still almost as much a black art as a science.  Even with all of
today's fancy-schmancy tools, there are still basicly two ways that you can
engineer software: if you want it out on time, you sometimes have to make
compromises in the reliability and the quality of the end product, or if
you insist on quality, (or maybe I should say, if your customers insist that
you make it priority 1) then hitting the schedule gets to be, shall we say,
"challenging".  That's why, when people ask me when such-and-such is going to
be available, I'll generally try to be as vague as I think I can get away with
being.  Usually, I'll answer in terms of which quarter I think it will
be done, (never what month, or what week).  It raises the likelihood that I
won't be telling a fib.
 
Anyway, I just wanted to confirm that Richard's remarks do reflect what was
said on the broadcast on 9/19.  The Advisor article was written a
couple of months ago, and things changed in the interim.  (This is why we have
electronic media).