Offbeat

Big Blue escalated the OS/2 keyboard squabble through seven layers of management. Redmond's answer? Nope

Long before Copilot or even the Windows key, Microsoft and IBM were squabbling over Tab - a tale that says more about Big Blue's bureaucracy than hopping between fields.

Veteran Microsoft engineer Raymond Chen shared another war story this week, from the time IBM and Microsoft were at loggerheads over the Tab key during the OS/2 collaboration. 

This wasn't the tabs-vs-spaces debate that has long rumbled through the IT world (another Microsoft veteran, Larry Osterman, came down firmly on the side of tabs when storage was tight, then switched spaces when it wasn't). This was simpler: which key should move you between fields in a dialog box.

Microsoft's preference was the Tab key. IBM strongly opposed the decision. Chen didn't elaborate on IBM's preference (and some keyboards in those days had a lot of keys that didn't survive into the modern era), only that the Tab key wasn't the way Big Blue wanted to go.

IBM pressed the escalation button, and the issue was sent upstairs, first to the manager of Microsoft's Tab decision-maker. The response, according to Chen, went something along the lines of: "The reason you are in Boca is to make these decisions so I don't have to be in Boca."

IBM's offices in Boca Raton, Florida, were where the discussion took place.

Chen wrote: "My colleague rephrased this reply in a more corporate manner before passing it on to IBM: 'Microsoft supports the use of the Tab key for this purpose.'"

IBM was not happy with this response, so the issue was escalated higher through the byzantine layers of Big Blue management until it reached a VP who was "absolutely opposed to use of the Tab for this purpose." Chen recalled this was approximately seven levels of management above the programmers.

The VP demanded confirmation from the equivalent-level manager at Microsoft that the company stood by the choice.

Equivalent-level? Who was that senior at Microsoft?

Chen wrote: "My colleague replied, 'Bill Gates's mother is not interested in the Tab key.' This apparently ended the discussion, and the Tab key stayed." ®