digitalmars.D - before D there was d
- jim schmit (69/69) Jul 09 2014 i recently sent this email to andrei. he encouraged me to post
- David Gileadi (4/65) Jul 09 2014 Whew, Walter dodged a bullet there by capitalizing his "D" language! :)
- Andrei Alexandrescu (2/4) Jul 09 2014 Seconded. Thanks Jim! -- Andrei
- jim schmit (13/19) Jul 09 2014 thank you andrei.
- Walter Bright (2/3) Jul 09 2014 This is the first I've heard of that product, it is fun hearing about it...
- H. S. Teoh via Digitalmars-d (10/14) Jul 09 2014 On that note, the "Mars programming language" is also already taken (as
- Joakim (2/73) Jul 09 2014 Cool story, bro.
- Chris (2/73) Jul 09 2014 Sounds quite impressive. Maybe it's a good omen for D.
- Sean Kelly (3/3) Jul 09 2014 Interesting story. Thanks for posting it. I remember Telerate!
- deadalnix (6/10) Jul 10 2014 I love these pieces of computer history. I recently had the
i recently sent this email to andrei. he encouraged me to post it in this forum. here it is: hi andrei a colleague recently pointed me to the wired article about you & your D computer language. thought you might be interested an earlier attempt to produce a new & better computer language that we called d (lower case). fear not, i am an engineer, not a lawyer, & do not sue people. my name is jim schmit. i am a retired engineer / professor / entrepreneur / international business man / corporate executive. I wrote my 1st program over 50 years ago. i worked for IBM as a systems engineer on the first OS on big iron. disillusioned with the consequences of complexity in computer design (i am a pathological minimalist), i dropped out to become a computer science professor & "do my own thing". i was extremely active at the birth of the microcomputer. in the mid 70's i created a programming system for small cheap control computers based on a stack architecture pseudo machine. it was tiny intended to fit entirely in a 2K byte eprom. the run time system consisted of a set of “base” functions that fit in less than 1/2 K bytes of memory. there was no interpreter, the code was threaded. the application fit in the other 1 1/2K. the functions used byte codes & used less than 1/3 the space of well written machine language and ran at 1/2 the speed of machine code. net results…3x the functionality in the same rom while far easier to write & debug code. i called it omega before i could commercialize my system, i was distracted. i was commissioned to design & build what became known as CompuTrac, the first microcomputer based technical analytic system for trading the commodities markets. it became an instant hit & we soon found ourselves at the forefront of real time trading systems. we developed initially for the apple II & later the PC. by the late 70’s we were searching for a new hardware platform & disappointed in the options available decided to “roll our own”. we revisited omega as the basis for a real time graphic workstation. a former customer, turned competitor, named his product omega, so we renamed the language d (after c). with 2 former student assistants, paul johnstone & ana maria roa, we started delta digital designs “strong designs & innovative coffee”. we introduced our delta computer with d software in late ’83. the software extended into the new windowed environment but remained small & quick. Our first product was called TradePlan. it was a real time vector spreadsheet with constantly changing graphic output. it could monitor 3 real time ticker feeds of exchange trading data, maintain a local data base of time series prices, feed 4 spreadsheets that were fully user programable to calculate technical indicators & create a trading system with alarms of opportunity & display all on constantly updating charts. the d machine run time system containing multitasking scheduler, real time i/o handlers, a complete graphic windowing capability ran in under 8K of code. The trade plan app code was under 24K. running on a 6809 processor, it was highly user responsive & could keep up with the workload. it became famous in it’s small world of finance. In 1985 both CompuTrac & Delta Digital Designs was bought by Dow Jones / Telerate. at dow, our products were renamed, extended & added to. we did another product called Matrix that was a user programmable financial market monitor / consolidator that proved very popular. In the late 80’s our products generated just under $1B revenue for DJ. Matrix used the 3rd iteration of the d language, rebuilt to be fully object oriented. I retired in 1992 but my team continued the work for dow & a series of other owners until 2003. if any of this is of any interest to you, please let me know. regards
Jul 09 2014
On 7/9/14, 6:17 AM, jim schmit wrote:i recently sent this email to andrei. he encouraged me to post it in this forum. here it is: hi andrei a colleague recently pointed me to the wired article about you & your D computer language. thought you might be interested an earlier attempt to produce a new & better computer language that we called d (lower case). fear not, i am an engineer, not a lawyer, & do not sue people. my name is jim schmit. i am a retired engineer / professor / entrepreneur / international business man / corporate executive. I wrote my 1st program over 50 years ago. i worked for IBM as a systems engineer on the first OS on big iron. disillusioned with the consequences of complexity in computer design (i am a pathological minimalist), i dropped out to become a computer science professor & "do my own thing". i was extremely active at the birth of the microcomputer. in the mid 70's i created a programming system for small cheap control computers based on a stack architecture pseudo machine. it was tiny intended to fit entirely in a 2K byte eprom. the run time system consisted of a set of base functions that fit in less than 1/2 K bytes of memory. there was no interpreter, the code was threaded. the application fit in the other 1 1/2K. the functions used byte codes & used less than 1/3 the space of well written machine language and ran at 1/2 the speed of machine code. net results3x the functionality in the same rom while far easier to write & debug code. i called it omega before i could commercialize my system, i was distracted. i was commissioned to design & build what became known as CompuTrac, the first microcomputer based technical analytic system for trading the commodities markets. it became an instant hit & we soon found ourselves at the forefront of real time trading systems. we developed initially for the apple II & later the PC. by the late 70s we were searching for a new hardware platform & disappointed in the options available decided to roll our own. we revisited omega as the basis for a real time graphic workstation. a former customer, turned competitor, named his product omega, so we renamed the language d (after c). with 2 former student assistants, paul johnstone & ana maria roa, we started delta digital designs strong designs & innovative coffee. we introduced our delta computer with d software in late 83. the software extended into the new windowed environment but remained small & quick. Our first product was called TradePlan. it was a real time vector spreadsheet with constantly changing graphic output. it could monitor 3 real time ticker feeds of exchange trading data, maintain a local data base of time series prices, feed 4 spreadsheets that were fully user programable to calculate technical indicators & create a trading system with alarms of opportunity & display all on constantly updating charts. the d machine run time system containing multitasking scheduler, real time i/o handlers, a complete graphic windowing capability ran in under 8K of code. The trade plan app code was under 24K. running on a 6809 processor, it was highly user responsive & could keep up with the workload. it became famous in its small world of finance. In 1985 both CompuTrac & Delta Digital Designs was bought by Dow Jones / Telerate. at dow, our products were renamed, extended & added to. we did another product called Matrix that was a user programmable financial market monitor / consolidator that proved very popular. In the late 80s our products generated just under $1B revenue for DJ. Matrix used the 3rd iteration of the d language, rebuilt to be fully object oriented. I retired in 1992 but my team continued the work for dow & a series of other owners until 2003. if any of this is of any interest to you, please let me know. regardsWhew, Walter dodged a bullet there by capitalizing his "D" language! :) Seriously though, this is a fascinating glimpse at some interesting technology and history. Many thanks for taking the time to post this here.
Jul 09 2014
On 7/9/14, 7:25 AM, David Gileadi wrote:Seriously though, this is a fascinating glimpse at some interesting technology and history. Many thanks for taking the time to post this here.Seconded. Thanks Jim! -- Andrei
Jul 09 2014
"jim schmit" <schmit.jim gmail.com> On Wednesday, 9 July 2014 at 19:11:22 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:On 7/9/14, 7:25 AM, David Gileadi wrote:thank you andrei. a little more info a preliminary information document from 1983 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7Hn2bVpUk-sOHdYTktqTFdkR0E/edit?usp=sharing some early photos of the computer, code & authors https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7Hn2bVpUk-sV3E0VEcyckFfa1k/edit?usp=sharing finally, an email conversation with woz in which i give more detail of the project https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qg4-s-_pCpFkfgfoFpYaD40RkpRdjn8TqU8Al7XPR1k/edit?usp=sharing woz finally made it to new orleans but had a stomach virus attack before we could meet. one day i hope to have the honorSeriously though, this is a fascinating glimpse at some interesting technology and history. Many thanks for taking the time to post this here.Seconded. Thanks Jim! -- Andrei
Jul 09 2014
On 7/9/2014 7:25 AM, David Gileadi wrote:Whew, Walter dodged a bullet there by capitalizing his "D" language! :)This is the first I've heard of that product, it is fun hearing about it!
Jul 09 2014
On Wed, Jul 09, 2014 at 12:38:42PM -0700, Walter Bright via Digitalmars-d wrote:On 7/9/2014 7:25 AM, David Gileadi wrote:On that note, the "Mars programming language" is also already taken (as I've pointed out elsewhere recently): http://ww2.cs.mu.oz.au/~mgiuca/mars/ The frequency of name collisions makes me think that the programming language market is far too saturated, in spite of only a handful of languages actually being generally viable. T -- Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation: I have preferences. You have biases. He/She has prejudices. -- Gene WirchenkoWhew, Walter dodged a bullet there by capitalizing his "D" language! :)This is the first I've heard of that product, it is fun hearing about it!
Jul 09 2014
On Wednesday, 9 July 2014 at 13:18:00 UTC, jim schmit wrote:i recently sent this email to andrei. he encouraged me to post it in this forum. here it is: hi andrei a colleague recently pointed me to the wired article about you & your D computer language. thought you might be interested an earlier attempt to produce a new & better computer language that we called d (lower case). fear not, i am an engineer, not a lawyer, & do not sue people. my name is jim schmit. i am a retired engineer / professor / entrepreneur / international business man / corporate executive. I wrote my 1st program over 50 years ago. i worked for IBM as a systems engineer on the first OS on big iron. disillusioned with the consequences of complexity in computer design (i am a pathological minimalist), i dropped out to become a computer science professor & "do my own thing". i was extremely active at the birth of the microcomputer. in the mid 70's i created a programming system for small cheap control computers based on a stack architecture pseudo machine. it was tiny intended to fit entirely in a 2K byte eprom. the run time system consisted of a set of “base” functions that fit in less than 1/2 K bytes of memory. there was no interpreter, the code was threaded. the application fit in the other 1 1/2K. the functions used byte codes & used less than 1/3 the space of well written machine language and ran at 1/2 the speed of machine code. net results…3x the functionality in the same rom while far easier to write & debug code. i called it omega before i could commercialize my system, i was distracted. i was commissioned to design & build what became known as CompuTrac, the first microcomputer based technical analytic system for trading the commodities markets. it became an instant hit & we soon found ourselves at the forefront of real time trading systems. we developed initially for the apple II & later the PC. by the late 70’s we were searching for a new hardware platform & disappointed in the options available decided to “roll our own”. we revisited omega as the basis for a real time graphic workstation. a former customer, turned competitor, named his product omega, so we renamed the language d (after c). with 2 former student assistants, paul johnstone & ana maria roa, we started delta digital designs “strong designs & innovative coffee”. we introduced our delta computer with d software in late ’83. the software extended into the new windowed environment but remained small & quick. Our first product was called TradePlan. it was a real time vector spreadsheet with constantly changing graphic output. it could monitor 3 real time ticker feeds of exchange trading data, maintain a local data base of time series prices, feed 4 spreadsheets that were fully user programable to calculate technical indicators & create a trading system with alarms of opportunity & display all on constantly updating charts. the d machine run time system containing multitasking scheduler, real time i/o handlers, a complete graphic windowing capability ran in under 8K of code. The trade plan app code was under 24K. running on a 6809 processor, it was highly user responsive & could keep up with the workload. it became famous in it’s small world of finance. In 1985 both CompuTrac & Delta Digital Designs was bought by Dow Jones / Telerate. at dow, our products were renamed, extended & added to. we did another product called Matrix that was a user programmable financial market monitor / consolidator that proved very popular. In the late 80’s our products generated just under $1B revenue for DJ. Matrix used the 3rd iteration of the d language, rebuilt to be fully object oriented. I retired in 1992 but my team continued the work for dow & a series of other owners until 2003. if any of this is of any interest to you, please let me know. regardsCool story, bro.
Jul 09 2014
On Wednesday, 9 July 2014 at 13:18:00 UTC, jim schmit wrote:i recently sent this email to andrei. he encouraged me to post it in this forum. here it is: hi andrei a colleague recently pointed me to the wired article about you & your D computer language. thought you might be interested an earlier attempt to produce a new & better computer language that we called d (lower case). fear not, i am an engineer, not a lawyer, & do not sue people. my name is jim schmit. i am a retired engineer / professor / entrepreneur / international business man / corporate executive. I wrote my 1st program over 50 years ago. i worked for IBM as a systems engineer on the first OS on big iron. disillusioned with the consequences of complexity in computer design (i am a pathological minimalist), i dropped out to become a computer science professor & "do my own thing". i was extremely active at the birth of the microcomputer. in the mid 70's i created a programming system for small cheap control computers based on a stack architecture pseudo machine. it was tiny intended to fit entirely in a 2K byte eprom. the run time system consisted of a set of “base” functions that fit in less than 1/2 K bytes of memory. there was no interpreter, the code was threaded. the application fit in the other 1 1/2K. the functions used byte codes & used less than 1/3 the space of well written machine language and ran at 1/2 the speed of machine code. net results…3x the functionality in the same rom while far easier to write & debug code. i called it omega before i could commercialize my system, i was distracted. i was commissioned to design & build what became known as CompuTrac, the first microcomputer based technical analytic system for trading the commodities markets. it became an instant hit & we soon found ourselves at the forefront of real time trading systems. we developed initially for the apple II & later the PC. by the late 70’s we were searching for a new hardware platform & disappointed in the options available decided to “roll our own”. we revisited omega as the basis for a real time graphic workstation. a former customer, turned competitor, named his product omega, so we renamed the language d (after c). with 2 former student assistants, paul johnstone & ana maria roa, we started delta digital designs “strong designs & innovative coffee”. we introduced our delta computer with d software in late ’83. the software extended into the new windowed environment but remained small & quick. Our first product was called TradePlan. it was a real time vector spreadsheet with constantly changing graphic output. it could monitor 3 real time ticker feeds of exchange trading data, maintain a local data base of time series prices, feed 4 spreadsheets that were fully user programable to calculate technical indicators & create a trading system with alarms of opportunity & display all on constantly updating charts. the d machine run time system containing multitasking scheduler, real time i/o handlers, a complete graphic windowing capability ran in under 8K of code. The trade plan app code was under 24K. running on a 6809 processor, it was highly user responsive & could keep up with the workload. it became famous in it’s small world of finance. In 1985 both CompuTrac & Delta Digital Designs was bought by Dow Jones / Telerate. at dow, our products were renamed, extended & added to. we did another product called Matrix that was a user programmable financial market monitor / consolidator that proved very popular. In the late 80’s our products generated just under $1B revenue for DJ. Matrix used the 3rd iteration of the d language, rebuilt to be fully object oriented. I retired in 1992 but my team continued the work for dow & a series of other owners until 2003. if any of this is of any interest to you, please let me know. regardsSounds quite impressive. Maybe it's a good omen for D.
Jul 09 2014
Interesting story. Thanks for posting it. I remember Telerate! That was the reason we had a PC in our house in the 80s. If it weren't for that, I may not have ended up a programmer.
Jul 09 2014
On Wednesday, 9 July 2014 at 15:53:42 UTC, Sean Kelly wrote:Interesting story. Thanks for posting it. I remember Telerate! That was the reason we had a PC in our house in the 80s. If it weren't for that, I may not have ended up a programmer.I love these pieces of computer history. I recently had the chance to meet Ivan Godard and got all the war stories behind the design of ada (he gave a conference at ACCU and we had dinner after that). Thank you for sharing !
Jul 10 2014