Best and worst software

Veteran computing columnist John C. Dvorak recently offered his list of the "worst software disasters" in the last few decades of computing -- 10 programs that he says were "hyped as the next big thing and then proved to be a huge flop." Microsoft, as you might imagine, is well-represented.

It's a fun column. Unless, that is, you contributed to one of the programs Dvorak put on the list. Microsoft's Michael Lehman did, having produced a variation of the Pascal programming language earlier in his career, prior to joining the company. On his weblog, Lehman offers this post in his defense.

For its part, Microsoft also squeaked in at 10th place on Dvorak's alternate list of the "most important software programs." But not for Windows. Making the list was the Microsoft Basic programming language, which Dvorak called the company's "one true innovation that worked."