Circa 1999 I was with a startup. We wrote C and C++ for Windows and embedded platforms. We used source control. Every developer could build everything on their PC. We used Visual Studio.
So I think we knew around that time what patterns were good ones... But sure, lots of software organizations didn't even use source control and failed Joel's test miserably.
EDIT: And sadly enough many orgs today fail Joel's test as well. We forgot some things that help make better software.
we knew around that time what patterns were good ones
The source control system I had at one job around that time was a dvcs! At a different one, the source control system had its own filesystem was generally insane. It had its own fulltime maintainer sort of like tptacek's build person.
The big difference, really, was that all this software cost a lot of money compared to now where it mostly does not.
