
The Creation of EasyWriter - bootload
http://www.webcrunchers.com/crunch/Play/ibmstory/
======
lutusp
Here's how I remember my part of the linked story (I was active in Apple II
development in those days).

After my program Apple Writer
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Writer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Writer))
became a best-seller and the IBM PC was about to appear, IBM called me up and
asked if I would write a version of Apple Writer for their machine.

At the time of IBM's call I was making well over a million dollars per year in
Apple Writer royalties. I asked IBM, "What royalty terms are you offering"?
This caught the IBM people somewhat off guard, unaccustomed as they were to
speaking to programmers who had any business sense. They replied, "Well, you
get $100,000 in royalties, after which we own your program."

I thought for a minute, and replied, "I don't know -- right now I'm making
that much from Apple Writer every two weeks." The IBM people realized I wasn't
a likely candidate for their standard deal.

I heard the next chapter of the story third-hand, and I can't verify its
truth. It went like this -- they next called John Draper and offered him the
same deal. He accepted. The result was somewhat mediocre and IBM wasn't
terribly happy. According to the story, Draper said, "IBM wanted a $100,000
program, and I gave them one."

It might be myth, but I heard it from several sources.

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bootload
_"... I also write a De-compiler that would take the compiled FORTH code and
re-generate source code. This was invaluable in tracing down some gnarly
compiler problems in FORTH. You see, I was not only writing a word processor,
but I was also developing the language on the fly as well. Modifying the
compiler, interpreter, and I even write a DOS (In forth) to manage the
easyWriter text files, because EasyWriter didn't need DOS. So I implemented
one, using a FAT (File allocation table) and all that other Gnarly Disk
Operating system low level code. I found out that FORTH allowed me total
flexibility. If the language didn't have a feature, I implemented it. Simple
as that. ..."_

Always interested _how_ product is built. This is 1980 style software
development, Captain Crunch (John Draper) style. Read here why FORTH was used
( _' ease of porting to different computer architectures'_) ~
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_(programming_language)#H...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_\(programming_language\)#History)

