::::::::¢¢ THE CREATION - PART ONE¢ (Reprinted by the OL HACKERS ATARI¢ USER GROUP, NY, Uploaded from¢ USENET)¢¢ In the beginning, all was a void,¢ with the Spirit of GOD brooding over¢ the dark vapors.¢¢ Then GOD said, "Let there be Byte,"¢ and there was Byte. GOD saw the Byte¢ and was pleased with it, and divided¢ the Byte into Bits. He created a¢ multitude of zeros, for zeros were¢ all there were.¢¢ On the second day, GOD toyed with the¢ Bytes, and organized some of them¢ into groups, to which He said, "You¢ shall be called Words, for from Bytes¢ you came, and of Bytes are you¢ composed."¢¢ On the third day, GOD said (to whom¢ GOD was talking has never been¢ ascertained or even questioned), "I¢ have Words, made up of Bytes, made up¢ of Bits. But something's missing."¢¢ So GOD scraped up a lump of clay,¢ squeezed it tightly in His mighty¢ hands and flung it against the sky¢ where it solidified into a smoky¢ mass. GOD saw the steaming heap, he¢ felt that it was good, and he was¢ pleased, and said to it, "You shall¢ be called Hardware, a home for My¢ Words and Bytes and Bits, and as you¢ are the very first of your kind I¢ shall call you CPU."¢¢ And GOD turned, and with a flick of¢ His wrist spewed forth tape drives,¢ disks, paper tape, terminals, on-line¢ printers, entire remote stations,¢ whole teleprocessing installations,¢ "For you shall serve as a temporary¢ home for My words . . .".¢¢ And GOD saw all this sparkling in the¢ heavens, and that it was good, and He¢ was pleased.¢ Having done all this, GOD rested.¢¢ On the fourth day, GOD reviewed all¢ that He had done. He saw His Bits¢ and His Bytes residing statically on¢ an infinite variety of media. But He¢ was not pleased. "Something's¢ missing," said He. "I need to¢ animate My treasured Bytes, to give¢ them Life."¢¢ So GOD leaned back, touched a soiled¢ hand to His mighty brow, and with one¢ single, all-powerful thought, set His¢ hardware in motion.¢¢ "You," said He to the intangible¢ breath now coursing through His¢ hardware, "I shall call you software,¢ for . . ." and so on, and so forth.¢¢ And He continued, "You are the first,¢ the best, the most perfect and¢ omnipotent software." And divided¢ the software into many parts; into¢ utilities, compilers, system¢ libraries and His favorite, most¢ privileged and beloved operating¢ system.¢¢ GOD was pleased, so He rested.¢¢ On the fifth day, GOD again surveyed¢ all that He had done and was filled¢ with joy. He found that with His¢ creation he could determine the value¢ of Pi to ten thousand digits. He¢ found that He could produce¢ flowcharts of His beloved operating¢ system, and these He posted by His¢ throne. He discovered that He could¢ run off Snoopy calendars, pictures of¢ the Mona Lisa and witty little¢ computer accounts of The Creation. ¢ With a terminal at His throne, He¢ didn't have to travel halfway to¢ wherever, to access His system.¢¢ He called His creation "Imperatatum¢ Byte Magnamus" (or "IBM" for short,¢ which was his OTHER way to say ATARI¢ 130XE)(GOD had not invented numbers¢ at this time!).¢ But all was not well. GOD's beloved¢ system was so large, so complex, that¢ even the mighty GOD -- maker of¢ heavens and earth (but that's another¢ story), the Builder of the CPU and¢ virtual memory, the Author of Fortran¢ -- was hard-pressed to keep up on how¢ everything worked.¢¢ So GOD said, "I'll make Me a man."¢¢ And He did, and to the man he said,¢ "You shall be called (logically¢ enough) "Man," and to you shall fall¢ the responsibility of maintaining all¢ that I have done."¢¢ And to keep man company, GOD gave him¢ woman-¢ playfully saying to man, "For I know¢ that even Bytes get lonely for a¢ little Bit," and He chuckled at His¢ little play on words. So, he created¢ woman to be a helpmate and partner.¢¢ On the sixth day, GOD mounted His¢ throne, logged onto His terminal, and¢ engaged in a full day of¢ uninterrupted, 1-second turnaround. ¢ He saw all that He had done, that it¢ was good. He was pleased that from¢ His first Byte He had created such a¢ wonderful and extensive toy. He¢ created file after file, He performed¢ advanced and impressive on-line data¢ base updates, He wrote a faster and¢ more extensive Fortran compiler, and¢ in general rejoiced in the perfection¢ of His I.B.M.¢¢ After a hard day's work on a hot¢ terminal -- during which man was¢ quietly familiarizing himself with¢ the system documentation -- GOD¢ called it a day ("You I shall call¢ day . . ." and so forth) and went to¢ sleep.¢¢ One the seventh day, so tired was He¢ from the week's labors, GOD slept all¢ day. What transpired on that crucial¢ seventh day is recounted in the "Fall¢ of Man . . ."¢¢ TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2 "THE FALL"¢¢ ******¢