Digital Light & Color

I found this the other day and found it an interesting read as it gives some background to Lotus123 and PWP.

Jonathan, I hope you don't mind me posting this here.

The interview PDF can be downloaded from here: http://www.cbi.umn.edu/oh/pdf.phtml?id=340

Keith,

Thanks for the link. Interesting to read the backstory of DL-C, and to see the once well respcted but long gone names Data General and DEC in print once more.
I was also reminded of my short - strictly amateur - assembly language programming days on the Zilog Z-80 cpu. This was the cpu used in my first 3 computers: Sinclair ZX-80, followed by the Sinclair ZX-81 and the Sinclair Spectrum. The Sinclair ZX-80 had 1k (yes, I mean k) of RAM, and programs were stored on audio tape cassettes. As far as I can recall only one high level programming language was available, Sinclair Basic - a nice implementation I always thought. The attractions of assembler were much as Jonathan described in his situation. Compact code, speed (Basic was interpreted, not compiled) and the ability to do memory manipulations not available via Basic.

Mike.

Mike,

seems like we both started out in a similar era. My first encounter with a computer was at school where we had an old ICL1901 where we programmed in FORTRAN using cards! I then moved onto Apple II with a CPM card also running the Z80 CPU where I wrote my first assembler code. I finally ended up writing a lot of C followed by ORACLE DBA work. All the old names certainly brought back memories.

What really attracted me to PWP (besides being a perfect match for my needs) was how compact and efficient it was for what it did. This immediately indicated that this program was written by a true programmer. It was only shortly after purchasing PWP that I discovered the true background of JS.

I wish other programs were written like this without all the bloatware and eye candy which looks good but mostly slows things down. I want good old-fashioned software that does the task effectively, efficiently and with a minimum of fuss.

I am getting carried away, but if anyone wants an example of how software should be written then they need not look further than PWP!