In the mid 1980s, Paradyne Corporation [http://www.paradyne.com] attempted to build a next generation network management system.  They were too foolish to believe they couldn't do it with Smalltalk on a workstation (started with a PC) and ObjectiveC on a server, so they did it anyway.  Unfortunately, while the product was about to go into beta, AT&T purchased the company and decided to start over using C++.  The product they produced several years later had much less functionality and very little impact, whereas the original product dazzled many at trade shows.  The manager of the project Seaton Kenworthy, was quoted several years later as saying, "The most foolish thing I ever did was abandon Smalltalk".

In order to get Smalltalk objects to talk to ObjectiveC objects, KenAuer discovered the ProxyPattern (although he didn't call it that at the time) which he thought was his brilliant invention.  Many other germs of patterns were discovered at that time by KenAuer, AlanLovejoy, and others.
----
CategoryCompany CategoryStory