Even when I started writing my books in 1963, I didn't think people knew what had happened in 1959. I was reading in American Scientist last week about people who had rediscovered an algorithm that Boyer and Moore had discovered in 1980. It happens all the time that people don't realize the glorious history that we have. The idea that people knew a thing or two in the '70s is strange to a lot of young programmers. It's inevitable that in such a complicated field that people will be missing stuff. Hopefully with things like Wikipedia, achievements don't get forgotten the way they were before.
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