Doug Neale -- A Brief Biography
I have been programming for a very long time, starting with Fortran on punched cards in the late 50's, moving on to paper tape driven computers such as the Elliot 803B, Honeywell 312 and the Prime 100 using Assembler and Machine Code. In the middle of those years I found time to work on an ASR33 linked by a very slow telephone line running Basic.
I moved into management, but always managed to find some excuse for doing a little programming on the side. I found some Texas 9900 powered controllers being thrown out as we updated old DEC 8 systems with new Nova ones. By cannibalising several machines I built myself a small microcomputer and looked around for an operating system for it. A friend introduced me to Forth and I was off and running. Many years later and I'm still secretary of Fig UK! albeit we are almost defunct these days.
As I started to purchase 386, then 486 powered desktop boxes running Windows 3.1 to replace the mini computer systems of earlier years, I started to explore the range of Microsoft compilers, teaching myself 'C' in order to exploit these feeble boxes to the limit.
When the Macintosh was launched I fell in love with it! I have been a Mac fan eversince especially as I had to learn Pascal in order to really get the best out of it. We started to buy DeskTop Publishing software in order to produce display adverts (I remember it needed a dongle to run), then a few years later Quark came out and of course, as it was extensible, I had to have a look at the Xtension development system. I have been writing Xtensions ever since, for both Mac and Windows platforms.
Then Adobe came up with an alternative DeskTop Publishing program called InDesign which is even more extensible than Quark. Not only does it have C++ Plugins, but it is scriptable on both platforms, utilising Javascript, as well as Applescript on the Mac.So far I have only produced one Javascript, but I just need a good excuse.....
When I retired somebody asked me to help them write a system in REALbasic, which was a 'real' revelation. I was hooked again!!
This is me, taken on holiday earlier this year, somewhere near Barton-on-Sea, while we were staying on the edge of the New Forest
Site Last Updated 20th November 2008
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