before D there was d

[David Gileadi via Digitalmars-d]

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 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

Whew, 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.