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Gary Kildall



Gary Kildall: mid-1980s.
Gary Kildall: mid-1980s.

With the loss of the IBM deal, Gary and Dorothy found themselves under pressure to bring in more experienced management, and Gary's influence over the company waned. He worked in various experimental and research projects, such as a version of CP/M with multitasking and an implementation of the Logo programming language.[2] He hoped that Logo, an educational dialect of LISP, would supplant BASIC in education, but it did not.[12] After seeing a demonstration of the Apple Lisa, Kildall oversaw the creation of DRI's own graphical user interface, called Graphical Environment Manager (GEM) Desktop. Novell acquired DRI in 1991 in a deal that netted millions for Kildall.

Kildall also pursued computing-related projects outside DRI. In 1983 he started hosting a public television program on the side, called Computer Chronicles, that followed trends in personal computing. He started another company, KnowledgeSet, that adapted optical disk technology for computer use. In 1985 it released the first computer encyclopedia, Grolier's Academic American Encyclopedia.[6] Kildall's final business venture, known as Prometheus Light and Sound and based in Austin, Texas, developed a home PBX system[2] that integrated land-line telephones with mobile phones.

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Personal life

Kildall's colleagues recall him as creative, easygoing, and adventurous. In addition to flying, he loved sports cars, auto racing, and boating, and he had a lifelong love of the sea.[1][2]

Although Kildall preferred to leave the IBM affair in the past and to be known for his work before and afterward, he continually faced comparisons between himself and Bill Gates and fading memories of his contributions. A legend grew around the fateful IBM-DRI meeting (encouraged by Gates and various journalists), suggesting that Kildall had irresponsibly taken the day off for a recreational flight, and he tired of constantly having to refute that story.[7] In later years, he had occasional private expressions of bitterness over being upstaged by Microsoft.[2]

Kildall was particularly annoyed when the University of Washington asked him, as a distinguished graduate, to attend their computer science program anniversary in 1992, but gave the keynote speech to college dropout Gates. In response he started writing his memoir, Computer Connections.[9] The memoir, which he distributed only to a few friends, expressed his frustration that people did not seem to value elegance in software,[12] and it said of Gates, "He is divisive. He is manipulative. He is a user. He has taken much from me and the industry." In an appendix he called DOS "plain and simple theft" because its first 26 system calls worked the same as CP/M's.[13] Harold Evans used the memoir as a source for a chapter about Kildall in the 2004 book They Made America, concluding that Microsoft had robbed Kildall of his inventions.[7] IBM veterans from the PC project disputed the book's description of events, and Microsoft described it as "one-sided and inaccurate."[9]

Selling DRI to Novell had made Kildall a wealthy man, and he moved to the West Lake Hills suburb of Austin. His Austin house was a lakeside property, with stalls for several sports cars, plus a video studio in the basement. Kildall owned and flew his own Lear jet and had at least one boat on the lake. While in Austin he also participated in volunteer efforts to assist children with AIDS. In California, he owned a mansion with a panoramic ocean view in Pebble Beach.

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Death

On July 8, 1994, Kildall fell at a Monterey, California restaurant. The circumstances of the fall remain unclear, with various sources claiming he fell from a chair, fell down steps, or was assaulted. He checked in and out of the hospital twice, and died three days later at the Community Hospital of Monterey Peninsula. The coroner's report identified the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head. There was also evidence that he had experienced a heart attack, but an autopsy did not conclusively determine the cause of death.[13][14][15] He was buried in Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery in North Seattle.

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Recognition

In March 1995, Kildall was posthumously honored by the Software Publishers Association (now the Software and Information Industry Association) for his contributions to the microcomputer industry:[2]

  • Introduction of operating systems with preemptive multitasking and windowing capabilities and menu-driven user interfaces.
  • Creation of the first diskette track buffering schemes, read-ahead algorithms, file directory caches, and RAM disk emulators.
  • Introduction of a binary recompiler in the 1980s.
  • The first programming language and first compiler specifically for microprocessors.
  • The first microprocessor disk operating system, which eventually sold a quarter of a million copies.
  • The first computer interface for video disks to allow automatic nonlinear playback, presaging today's interactive multimedia.
  • The file system and data structures for the first consumer CD-ROM.
  • The first successful open system architecture by segregating system-specific hardware interfaces in a set of BIOS routines.

At the time of Kildall's death, Bill Gates commented that he was "one of the original pioneers of the PC revolution" and "a very creative computer scientist who did excellent work."[1]

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Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e "Special Edition: Gary Kildall". The Computer Chronicles. 1995. [1]
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Swaine, Michael (2001-04-01). "Gary Kildall and Collegial Entrepreneurship". Dr. Dobb's Journal. 
  3. ^ Kildall, Gary (1973). "A Unified Approach to Global Program Optimization". Proceedings of the 1st Annual ACM SIGACT-SIGPLAN Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages. 
  4. ^ Akass, Clive. Interview: Gordon Eubanks, Former Student & CEO of Oblix, Inc.. Recollections of Gary Kildall. DigitalResearch.biz. Retrieved on 2006-11-30.
  5. ^ a b Wallace, James; Jim Erickson (1993). Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire. ISBN 0-88730-629-2. 
  6. ^ a b c Freiberger, Paul; Michael Swaine [1984] (2000). Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer, 2nd edition, New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-135892-7. 
  7. ^ a b c Evans, Harold; Gail Buckland; David Lefer (2004). They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators. Little, Brown and Co. ISBN 0-316-27766-5. 
  8. ^ Manes, Stephen; Paul Andrews (1992). Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry—and Made Himself the Richest Man in America. Doubleday. ISBN 0671880748. 
  9. ^ a b c Hamm, Steve; Jay Greene (October 25, 2004). "The Man Who Could Have Been Bill Gates". BusinessWeek. 
  10. ^ Eubanks, Gordon. Interview with Daniel S. Morrow. Gordon Eubanks Oral History (Computerworld Honors Program International Archives). Cupertino, CA. November 8, 2000. Retrieved on 2006-11-20.
  11. ^ Rolander, Tom. Interview with Robert Scoble. Scoble Show. PodTech.net. 2007-08-08. Retrieved on 2007-09-13.
  12. ^ a b Rolander, Tom (July 15, 1994). Eulogy. Tom Rolander's Website and Album. Retrieved on 2006-11-30.
  13. ^ a b Andrews, Paul. "A Career Spent in Gates' Shadow—Computer Pioneer Dies at 52", Seattle Times, July 14, 1994. 
  14. ^ Markoff, John. "Gary Kildall, 52, Crucial Player In Computer Development, Dies", New York Times, July 13, 1994, p. D19. 
  15. ^ Kirkpatrick, Don (1999-01-12). comp.os.cpm Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). Retrieved on 2006-11-20.

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References

List of reference documents (alphabetical by author):

  • Akass, Clive. Interview: Gordon Eubanks, Former Student & CEO of Oblix, Inc., Recollections of Gary Kildall. DigitalResearch.biz.
  • Andrews, Paul. "A Career Spent in Gates' Shadow — Computer Pioneer Dies at 52", Seattle Times, July 14, 1994.
  • "Special Edition: Gary Kildall". The Computer Chronicles TV show, 1995.
  • Eubanks, Gordon. Interview with Daniel S. Morrow. "Gordon Eubanks Oral History (Computerworld Honors Program International Archives).", Cupertino, CA. November 8, 2000.
  • Evans, Harold; Gail Buckland; David Lefer (2004). They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators. Little, Brown and Co. ISBN 0-316-27766-5.
  • Freiberger, Paul; Michael Swaine [1984] (2000). Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer, 2nd edition, New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-135892-7.
  • Hamm, Steve; Jay Greene (October 25, 2004). "The Man Who Could Have Been Bill Gates," BusinessWeek.
  • Kildall, Gary (1973). "A Unified Approach to Global Program Optimization". Proceedings of the 1st Annual ACM SIGACT-SIGPLAN Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages.
  • Kirkpatrick, Don (January 12, 1999). comp.os.cpm Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).
  • Manes, Stephen; Paul Andrews (1992). Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry—and Made Himself the Richest Man in America Doubleday. ISBN 0385420757.
  • Markoff, John. "Gary Kildall, 52, Crucial Player In Computer Development, Dies", New York Times, July 13, 1994, p. D19.
  • Rolander, Tom (July 15, 1994). Eulogy. Tom Rolander's Website and Album.
  • Swaine, Michael (April 1, 1997). "Gary Kildall and Collegial Entrepreneurship". Dr. Dobb's Journal.
  • Wallace, James; Jim Erickson (1993), Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire, ISBN 0-88730-629-2.

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External links




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