ABO – History
In 1992, I had just left IBM, after a 25-year career as a programmer and software architect, and I was searching for something else to do with my life. "Why not write a novel?" I thought. But about what? I happened to hear the song "Can't buy me love..." by the Beatles. What if a...
ABO – The Odyssey
A Billionaire's Odyssey is loosely based on The Odyssey by Homer, in which Odysseus is attempting to return home after the Trojan War. The Sirens tempt him, and the Cyclops captures him. Meanwhile, Penelope, Odysseus's wife, waits patiently for him while suitors attempt to take control of his wealth. In A Billionaire's Odyssey, Roland is on a...
Smalltalk – The Syntax Issue
I recently watched a YouTube video by “Uncle Bob” entitled “The Last Programming Language,” in which the speaker predicts what he believes will be the features of the last, best programming language. After discussing several currently popular languages (C++, Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, etc.), he admits that all these languages are essentially rehashings of the control and...
Smalltalk – The Language
Smalltalk is a general-purpose, object-oriented, programming language. Objects are entities consisting of data (numbers, strings, collections, and programmer-defined classes of objects) that are encapsulated by the methods (i.e., functions) defined by the class of the object. No other objects can affect its encapsulated data unless the class provides accessor methods for that data. This description...
ADF – Committees of Correspondence
In the novel American Democracy Forever, Dr. Charles, Charlie, Durand created an organization oof networked Forum Clubs. In their bylaws, Charlie defined the committees that each club should have to support its efforts: executive, finance, social, and action. There was also a Committee of Correspondence (CoC) to establish and manage communications with other Forum Clubs....
ADF – PARC
Anyone familiar with the history of computing knows that PARC is shorthand for the Palo Alto Research Center, which was founded by the Xerox Corporation in 1970. Its mission was to explore human/computer communications. This resulted in the WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer) interface we all use, the Smalltalk programming language, and Ethernet networking. In the...