Received from Richard Hallas on September 3. Farewell issue 20 editorial
of Foundation.
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The future and the past are one
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They say that nostalgia isn't what it used to be, but it has proved to
have a strong influence on my future plans, as my next major project
is to be large-scale research into the history of Acorn, in order to
document and preserve its legacy for the future. Circumstances have
come together to open a new avenue for me, and although it's somewhat
different from anything I've done before, I hope that readers of this
magazine will be able to see the value of the project, and might even
feel a certain muted excitement about it.

For quite a few years, now, I've had an ambition to write a book. The
following facts in particular strike me:

1. If you go into the computing section of any bookshop (real or
online), browse the books about computer history and search for
anything of significance about Acorn, your search will be in vain.
Even UK computing history is very poorly covered, despite its global
importance; you'll be able to find vast numbers of books about
Microsoft, Apple and the growth of computers in the USA, but if you
want to read about Acorn, Sinclair or the other British pioneers,
you'll be really hard pressed to find anything at all. (There are
snippets, but there's little more than an odd chapter in a broader
book at best; nothing comprehensive or balanced.)

2. Much the same can be said of academic publications (papers, theses,
journals and so on); whilst a lot is not readily accessible to members
of the general public, as far as I can determine there isn't actually
anything significant to find, even for those who have access to the
material.

3. Acorn really was profoundly important to the history of computers
and technology. Never mind that it got bogged down in education
latterly, and that most people (even some former Acorn users) are
totally unaware of the importance of its contributions. The fact
remains that it pioneered an astonishing number of amazing
technologies; a number out of all proportion to its size as a company.
Some of them deserved to be vastly successful but were all but
forgotten. Some were reinvented later by others, who then got the
credit for them. A small handful (the obvious example being the ARM
processor design) did in fact take off and become globally important.
(Did you know that Apple's iPods, today's cultural phenomenon, all
have ARM cores inside them, for instance?)

I hope that, with point 3, I'm preaching to the converted. Anyway, I
came to the conclusion that not only did Acorn's story deserve to be
told, but that if no-one decided to do something about it soon, then
there's every danger that the history will be forgotten. It's not well
documented (beyond magazine articles in the main Acorn press, much of
which is now long defunct), and in a few decades' time, when the early
days of computing are historically distant, it will become very
difficult for anyone to research the area and gain a true picture of
Acorn's significance. Rather, Acorn is far more likely to be
overlooked and entirely forgotten.

I therefore decided to investigate the possibility of writing a book
on this subject myself, and produced some planning documents to
describe to publishers what my book would contain. (So, the proposed
book has a detailed chapter plan and an overall title already, and has
had for quite some time.) Needless to say, though, I found it totally
impossible to get any book publishers remotely interested in my idea.
It's not too surprising, given that I'm a complete unknown in the
wider world, that I'd need a financial advance to help fund my
proposed research, and that the subject matter is apparently esoteric
(though it's my intention that the final book will be as broadly
appealing as I can make it). Having met with no success by taking a
direct approach, I decided to tackle the idea from a different angle;
one that will take longer but will ultimately be more useful and
rewarding.

My book is intended to be aimed at a general readership in order to
address the 'popular' market in point 1, above, but it would be awful
to spend ages writing a book that only ever had a single print-run and
then became instantly unavailable (which has been the fate of all too
many interesting books). If I could address point 2 (academia) at the
same time, then the whole project would be much more worthwhile. So,
what I determined to try to do was to take the following approach:

A. Go back to university to do academic research in this general area.
As well as producing a comprehensive PhD thesis, and probably various
papers, which could later be of interest to academics, this would
allow me to gather lots of useful research material for my book as a
byproduct of my funded PhD research.

B. Having done the academic work, and amassed all the material I need
for my book, write said book in a shorter period than would otherwise
be possible.

To cut a long story short, I approached Hermann Hauser (co-founder of
Acorn) with my idea and am delighted to say that he called it a "good
proposal" and agreed to help with the funding.

So, here's the plan for my life over the next five years:

Year 1: Do an MSc in the History of Science and Technology at the
University of Manchester. Although I have two Bachelor degrees already
(in music and in maths/computing), Manchester requires me to do an MSc
as a precursor to a PhD. Luckily, I will be able to research the BBC
Domesday Project for my MSc dissertation, so the MSc work will be able
to form part of the broader Acorn research.

Years 2 to 4: Do the main research for a PhD on the history of Acorn
and its position in the wider history of computing.

Year 5: Having completed my PhD, write the popular book (I use the
term 'popular' advisedly, of course!). I hope that having a PhD and
the weight of Manchester University behind me, not to mention a
completed manuscript, will make it easier to find the right publisher
at that stage. If not, though, and the worst comes to the worst, I'll
publish the book privately myself; at least the research will have
been funded up-front by the PhD work. However, I'm absolutely
determined that if this book is to be produced at all, it must be done
properly. I don't want to come out with an amateurish or half-hearted
affair; I want my book to be the definitive account of Acorn's
existence: accurate, complete, professionally produced and, I hope, an
enjoyable read. I will do my utmost to make it fulfil all of those
criteria.

It would be fair to admit that I'm not expecting to be able to retire
on the proceeds of book sales; I doubt, somehow, that I will enjoy
popularity of the magnitude experienced by J. K. Rowling.
Nevertheless, I do believe very strongly that this is a worthwhile
project and that somebody ought to do it; and I'd like to be that
somebody.

I'll be starting the MSc in September 2006, and, as mentioned above,
I'll be doing it at Manchester University. Manchester is of course a
very important place in terms of its contribution to the early history
of computers; the world's first stored-program computer, 'Baby', was
built there. The department in which I'll be working also plays host
to the UK National Archive for the History of Computing, and it should
be possible to expand the archive's holdings with Acorn-related
material during the course of my research. (As a matter of indirect
interest, Steve Furber, designer of the ARM's hardware
microarchitecture, is currently ICL Professor of Computer Engineering
at Manchester's School of Computer Science; although this is a
different department, it was he who put me in touch with the right
people initially.)

So, that's the plan. All being well, I hope that you'll all want to
buy a copy of my book in around five years' time!

In the meantime, I would of course welcome any useful information that
readers may have in connection with Acorn's history. Anything that
might assist with my research would be of interest, from obscure
documentation to interesting personal recollections about goings-on
inside the company. I hope to produce a readable history that's as
full and as accurate as possible, so if anyone reading this editorial
has a personal connection with Acorn, and recollections or
documentation relating to anything that might be interesting or
important in terms of Acorn itself, its products, partners or spin-off
ventures, I would of course be delighted to hear from them. Any
assistance would be greatly appreciated, whatever form it might
potentially take, so if you think you can help in any way, please
don't hesitate to get in touch with me via email to my personal
address, Richard [at] Hallas [dot] net, or by phone on 01484 460280.