Date:  Wed, 24 Jan 1996 12:34:32 -0500

From:  "Pearsons, Enid" <epearsons[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]RANDOMHOUSE.COM>

Subject: Re: Another WOTY



"Legacy," (one of those attributive nouns, or adjectives, if you will -- I've

heard and seen it primarily referring to "legacy data") has been around for

some time. It's certainly not specific to Windows 95, although that's a

reasonable current context. Legacy data is any data you or your institution

produced some time ago with previous software or hardware. It's therefore data

that you'd like to accommodate on or in your current software or hardware.

Stuff you have on 5 1/4-inch disks when you now own a computer that has only a

3 1/2-inch floppy drive is legacy data. So is information produced in obsolete

database software that you now want to convert to SGML format. The

incompatibility between the old and the new is the issue.



If "legacy" has been used to refer to the old hardware or software itself, I

haven't seen that. Cites would be fun. And useful.



Enid Pearsons -- epearsons [AT SYMBOL GOES HERE] randomhouse.com -- Jesse Sheidlower's friend and

colleague, in case I need an ID.



P.S. Maybe now I'll stop just l-u-r-k-i-n-g.



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To: ADS-L [AT SYMBOL GOES HERE] uga.cc.uga.edu (Multiple recipients of list ADS-L) [AT SYMBOL GOES HERE] SMTP

cc: (bcc: Enid Pearsons/Trade/RandomHouse)

From: RTROIKE [AT SYMBOL GOES HERE] CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU (Rudy Troike) [AT SYMBOL GOES HERE] SMTP

Date: 01/24/96 12:25 AM

Subject: Another WOTY



I had intended to send this one in earlier, but better early than late:

    LEGACY (Adj.) -- any computer hardware or software designed or sold

pre-Windows 95. The term began appearing in PC Magazine in about October or

November [if I were not too cheap to shake loose for the CD subscription,

I could do a search for the first attestation], and is now endemic.



    --Rudy Troike (rtroike[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ccit.arizona.edu)