Re: Vernon D. Buerg, dead at 62

[Harry Binswanger hb@xxxxxxxx]

Thanks, Robert. I didn't know this.


I have relied on LIST.COM for 24 years. Using it so often, I renamed it
L.COM to save keystrokes. I love its ability to toggle back and forth
between hex and ascii. The name Vernon Buerg is legendary among old-time
techies.




I don't know whether anybody else
noticed or remarked this -- it

is old news -- but I was immensely saddened to read of Vernon's

death.  LIST was the most important DOS utility of the XyWrite

era, hands down.  It is intuitive to use and incredibly fast

(because, like Xywrite, it was written in assembler); it will

benignly display any file, lickety-split, no matter how

sensitive or binary.  An oldtime IBM mainframe programmer,

Vernon belonged to the generation that believed in mutual help

and making a contribution, so LIST's price was a matter of

conscience -- it was the original (1982) shareware (with no nags

and no expiry), and some of Vernon's more brilliant successors,

like LightningUK (ImgBurn) and Irfan Skiljan (IrfanView),

acknowledge that heritage.  LIST was the first thing I added
to

any computer, and I still use it daily -- Carl and I have always

considered it to be the one truly indispensable companion to

XyWrite.


There's a modest appreciation at

http://www.dwwatkins.com/in-memory-of-vern-buerg.htm; eudora="autourl">http://www.dwwatkins.com/in-memory-of-vern-buerg.htm


Life without LIST would be tedious.  It's stupid to say
"Thank

you Vern" -- the guy is dead, after all -- but he made my work

so much easier, and I am grateful, and sorry I can't tell him

personally once again.


-----------------------------

Robert Holmgren

holmgren@xxxxxxxx

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Harry Binswanger
hb@xxxxxxxx