Recently, there’s been quite a bit of banter in the comments of a post I wrote a couple of years ago about my first employer, PAFEC Ltd.
It’s got me thinking. It would be great to try to re-create a working copy of their most famous software package, DOGS (Design Office Graphics System) on (say) a modern Linux platform such as the Raspberry Pi, for conservation reasons.
As one of the first general purpose CAD packages on the market (it was first released around 1979 if my memory serves me correctly) that didn’t require specialist CAD hardware to operate it, as well as being the leading British CAD software package of the 1980s, it would be a shame not to try I think.
I’ve no idea who owns the rights to the software today, but if they’d like to get in touch I’d be very interested in putting together a small team together to start a conservation effort – assuming that they still have access to its source code.