Sir?
Sir? Are you listening?
Mr Merlin?
Simon?
Simon shook his head.
"Yes? Sorry, I was miles away."
Millions of miles away, he thought.
"I was saying that we have just
got the final specifications for the SHTK Standard from the W3C"
said Kay.
"And?" Asked Simon,
"I’m afraid there is little
change. It is impossible for us to add many more features to the
system unless we improve upon this standard." she replied.
"A, Impossible is not in our
dictionary; and b, we keep to the standard" said Simon, reciting
in a few words what the company ethos did in several thousands. It
was quite literally true as well, The ashes of the relevant page were
framed on the wall behind Simon’s desk.
"If we start making our own
standards simply because we think we know best, we are going to lose
our main consumer base".
This was true as well, Merlin Tech’s
main customers were the types of people who attempted to rebel
against software producers who tried to enter markets and take them
over. Merlin’s strategy was to create programs that conformed to
standards precisely and with backward compatibility, so a document
created in Textra 98 could still be read in version 2, but without
the extra special effects added in the latest version.
This was a revelation to the industry.
The problem was that the general public stuck to it’s own, familiar
brands and Merlin Tech could not break into that sector without
applying some of the unethical tactics of the other companies, Which
the CEO, Simon Merlin, refused to do.
They could call it an Impasse, if that
hadn’t been on the same page as Impossible.