SMUG IV Pocket Encyclopedia

Every two or three years, Robelle throws a party for its software users at the HP 3000 conference. The first party was in Denver (1978) where 15 programmers tried to finish a keg of Coors. The second party in San Antonio (1982) attracted 300 people. Because we had missed a few years in between and because we weren't certain we would ever do it again, we called it the second meeting of the Seldom Met Users Group. As a SMUG II party favor, we gave away Micro-Proceedings that contained unpublished and unsuspected data on the HP 3000.

Over the past 10 years we have published numerous hints and warnings for the HP 3000 users, which we have now condensed and edited into one pocket guide. We have also included some reference material that we keep forgetting (e.g. Foptions), tips on obscure topics like SPL, a trivia contest, and a history of the HP 3000. The SMUG IV Encyclopedia is our party favor for 1985.

Most of the SMUG IV entries were written by Robert Green and David Greer of Robelle Solutions Technology Inc.

Robert Green became involved with HP when he found that his degree in Ancient Greek Philosophy did not lead quickly to a paying job as a philosopher. He worked at the HP factory as a junior programmer, technical writer, training instructor and course developer. Robert left HP to venture into the real world, trying to solve the DP problems of a nuts and bolts distributor on a pre-CX 3000, then formed Robelle to develop and market software tools.

David Greer's first exposure to HP computers occurred during a summer job he had while at university. This HP 3000 site happened to have Robert Green as the consultant on call and Alfredo Rego as the resident gypsy. Before long, David had completely rewritten a COBOL/IMAGE on-line system that some other consultants had left in ruins. Upon graduation, he came to work for Robelle. During his first week, he was sent to San Jose to speak on Stack Size to hundreds of users. He has been programming, programming, programming ever since, with occasional breaks to write, rewrite, and present papers to users groups. David Greer is currently President of Robelle and responsible for overall Research and Development.