From 1.0 :: Fernando Álvarez, Head of the Technology Department at República AFAP, tells us about the times before GeneXus and what its arrival implied |
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| “I had the feeling that we were at the forefront of something great still to arrive” |
 In 1989, while working for the firm De Larrobla & Asociados, I was invited to a demo on the 4th floor of a building at the corner of 18 de Julio and Minas (Montevideo); it was Artech’s first office.
I still recall Breogán doing the classical invoice demo for us. For someone like me, who had been doing “manual” programming for years, the automatic normalization of the database proved a stunning reality. It was then that this thought came to my mind: “Why didn’t they come up with something like this before? It would have saved me so many hours of work!”
Later on I attended the I GeneXus Meeting. Despite the reduced audience – we probably did not add up to one hundred attendees – in some way again, I felt that thing about being part of something significant that was about to disembark among us.
Reminiscences of when the Internet was not around
By the early 90s, I had already quit the programming activity and continued working at De Larrobla & Asociados but as a Systems Engineer.
In those days, prior to the birth of Bantotal we were in the business of selling IBM AS/400 computers, offering the added value of consultancy and software development services. My duties included pre and post sale assistance to help clients in selecting the computer most suitable to their needs. I was also in charge of installing and configuring the IBM AS/400 computers that we offered, in addition to imparting the corresponding training to users.
During summer seasons, when sales used to fall, I worked for Artech on several occasions, assisting Gustavo Proto on automation tasks in the transfer to AS/400 of the source code generated on PC by GeneXus, and its compiling and rollover. Among other things, I participated in exporting reorgs from the development AS/400s – of software houses – to production ones – of clients. I have very fond memories of lunch breaks in the old kitchen of the 18 de Julio offices, shared with Breogán Gonda, Nicolás Jodal, Gustavo Proto, J.J Mastropietro, and Karina Santo.
From those days when the Internet was still nonexistent, I still keep the vivid recollection of an enthusiastic Nicolás Jodal telling us about a book he had been reading, entitled: “The Neuromancer”, a sci-fi novel by William Gibson about cyberspace. It finally turned out to be a prophecy of what we were to live in short.
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