Anything's possible, and the ways of business in Italy were then, and now, mysterious (sometimes with intent). Hearsay is that the short Campy dropouts were forged for them by a contract firm that ALSO made forged items for others, including GPM, but can't recall the name (possibly Tecnociclo or Everest). So depending on how Campy worked with a contractor they MIGHT have ordered the DOs before the portacatena system was ready for release, but from the "catalog trail" the DOs and PC items (chainsupport and shift levers) were released by Campy at the same time. Doesn't mean it actually happened that way. It's one of those "gray areas" that may someday be nailed down by better sleuths than me. Too bad so many builders (especially Italian) did not use serial numbers with the date worked in.