OnlyOneOriginalProgram.  An aphorism or adage (quite possibly apocryphal) that says essentially only one program was ever written, and all programs since are copies modified for the new problem....

2002-04-10
HalSmith is manually browsing his off-line, non-digital archives for what he 'thinks' he has on an original reference which has the derivation of this paradigm.  He will update this page when he finds it, if it exists.  It could even be an original observation, based on his years as a cross-platform guru in his shop.

-- HalSmith

----

It's obvious, isn't it?  The original program was HelloWorld, and everyone since then has just been tacking extra bits on to its skeleton or porting HelloWorld to a new programming language and ''then'' tacking extra bits on.

----

11 June 2002: Isn't this a reference to Plato's theory about "Forms" or "Ideas"?  Have a look at http://www.newgenevacenter.org/biography/plato2.htm#forms for a discussion. 

-- RodneyRichardson