Do you remember when software development was an exciting, dynamic industry? When innovative technologies, revolutionary products, and compelling insights competed for our attention? When every day seemed to change the world in ways that challenged us?

It seems like that sometimes, doesn't it?

I've had such feelings now and then, but I've always shrugged them off. I tell myself that programmers who are just breaking into the field find today's technologies plenty exciting. The world hasn't changed, I have.

Or maybe not.

I've done some research lately into the history of our profession. And I was struck by all the amazing things that happened in one year. It was 1993. And it was a different world. Today really is boring compared to 1993.

What happened in 1993?

Books, for one thing. Our brightest thinkers were publishing world-changing ideas. Twelve months saw the publication of:

• Steve McConnell's Code Complete

• Grady Booch's Object-Oriented Design and Analysis with Applications, Second Ed.

• Bruce Schneier's Applied Cryptography

• Bjarne Stroustrup's The Design and Evolution of C++

• P.J. Plauger's Programming on Purpose

• Steve Maguire's Writing Solid Code.

I could argue that any one of those books changed the world. The half-dozen, considered together, constitute a revolution in the theory and practice of software development.

What else happened in 1993?

• Visual C++ was introduced.

• Yukihiro Matsumoto began work on the language that would eventually be known as Ruby.

• Microsoft released its groundbreaking version 3.0 of Visual Basic, including the JET Database Engine. The company begun integrating Visual Basic for Applications into its Office apps.

• Windows NT –the first 32-bit version of Windows—was released.

• Intel introduced the Pentium, the first mass-market 32-bit processor for desktop computing.

• Apple debuted its Newton personal digital assistant.

• Novell bought Unix Systems Labs from AT&T.

• Windows applications outsold MS-DOS applications for the first time.

• SunSelect introduced WABI, the Windows Application Binary Interface, which allowed Windows applications to run under Unix.

• Patrick Volkerding released Slackware, the first standalone commercial Linux distribution.

• The White House got its first Web page. President Clinton set up e-mail addresses for himself, First Lady Hillary Clinton, and Vice-President Al Gore. (A year later, Gore coined the term “Information Superhighway” and claimed to have invented the Internet.)

• The Mosaic Web browser was released.

• Leading Unix vendor Santa Cruz Operation went public. SCO was part of the Common Open Software Environment along with Hewlett-Packard, Unix Systems Laboratories, IBM, Univel, and SunSoft. The coalition worked to standardize Unix and strengthen its position on the desktop and on the Internet.

• FreeBSD 1.0 was released.

• Apple introduced AppleScript as part of the System 7 Pro operating system for the Macintosh.

• Microsoft introduced COM, the Component Object Model, the basis for OLE, OLE Automation, ActiveX, COM+, and DCOM technologies.

You see? It really was a heck of a year.

Web recommendation: I've been a fan of physicist Richard P. Feynman for a long time—his two volumes of autobiographical writing are well worth reading. You'll get a taste of the scientist's unique way of thinking on this wonderful page. J.D. says check it out.

J.D. Hildebrand has written hundreds of articles for dozens of publications and online communities dedicated to software development. His research assistant is brilliant, efficient, accommodating, and more than a bit sexy.