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) 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.
"... 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...
After my program 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.