What was it like to be a software engineer at NeXT?

Re:What was it like to be a software engineer at NeXT? by ams6110 on Monday July 23, 2018 @10:44AM (#17593094)

I remember watching Steve demo EOF at a tradeshow in Chicago, probably around 1995. His demo system crashed hard in the middle of the presentation, and we got to watch it reboot NEXTSTEP on the big screen. He handled it well, with an "oops" and a laugh, but I bet some people got their asses handed to them afterwards.

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Re:What was it like to be a software engineer at NeXT? by johnvanommen on Monday July 23, 2018 @12:20PM (#17593732)

Last year I watched a demo in San Jose where the company started re-writing the code, in front of the audience, during the demo.

I felt terrible for them; it would've looked a lot better if they just fell back on something else. It was boring watching them write code, people were getting up and leaving, it made it look like they were wildly unprepared. I wouldn't be surprised if the entire company went kaput after that.

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Re:What was it like to be a software engineer at NeXT? by pking on Tuesday July 24, 2018 @12:49AM (#17598189)

I'm surprised a demo visibly failed. Steve almost always had a hidden backup computer and an engineer following along with the preplanned demo in lockstep. If the machine crashed, a switch could be through and the demo could continue on the new machine.

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