XX International Workshop on Deep-Inelastic Scattering and Related Subjects

At a moment when many of the people attending the conference have not been involved in theearly DIS experiments it could be interesting to review how the field of DIS has started andevolved since 45 years. I shall start to remind the heroic years at SLAC, followed by the eraof high precisions fixed target experiments before entering the new kinematic domain and itsmany surprises at HERA. I shall end by commenting where we are at present five years afterthe end of data taking at HERA.