My first
commercial success was a DOS based help system in 1986 which implemented
something like Gopher using network file shares to host the data files.
The in the
late 1980’s, building on the work of Geoff Cooper and many others, I produced a
ground-breaking TCP/IP implementation for DOS called WATTCP. It could fit in TSRs (25kB), it could be linked into
user applications where it could offer almost full fast Ethernet performance,
and it offered a standardized configuration mechanism. It was later
incorporated into the world’s most popular communications package of the time, MS-KERMIT, and was even used on the
International Space Station. Also, connected with industry-leading Pegasys Emailer, PINE KLOS’s game technology, and others,
it was used by millions of people to connect to the Internet. Symantec used it for the Ghost software
to populate workstations with Windows over TCP/IP networks. TSoft added the
fastest PC based NFS client in the market.
In 1998 I
documented WATTCP in the WATTCP Manual, my first book. It became an
unofficial national best seller.
Gisle Vinum extended WATTCP to 32 bits, calling it Watt-32.
Original WATTCP apps could be recompiled or one could use BSD-styled
sockets. Very impressive. It provides networking for the Arcane web
browser, a DOS Java VM, and others. It
is still widely used in 8086 and Z80 compatible embedded systems.
In the
1990’s I produced eRTOS
and the eRTOS manual. It was not really a real
time OS, but it was an embedded OS that could be used to house web servers,
SNMP systems, and much more. It was used on many embedded 386 systems,
such as those produced by JK Micro Systems.
Over the
years I have implemented so many network protocols that it’s hard to remember
them all.
I wrote a
TELNET server for DOS in 1999 called Everywhere Access for Supro
Network Software Inc. It was like PC-Anywhere or Microsoft RDP, except
that it let you TELNET into a DOS computer. We took that multiuser in the
1990’s with up to 100 concurrent users running DOS software using OS/2 as the
virtualization engine. People talk about VMs now, we were doing it en-masse in 1990. It was used by the IRS, insurance
companies and many others to remotely access CD-ROM and Email software over the
Internet. Edify used both the DOS and the OS/2 software to automate
workflows.
I wrote a
VOIP implementation, emergency notification systems, LDAP and RADIUS servers
and clients, SMS based texting systems, countless web server
applications.
I
implemented a web filtering application which let corporations reject Web usage
of inappropriate sites. That is
implemented as a device driver. I’ve
written a lot of device drivers over the years.
I
implemented asset management systems where Apple OS X and Windows stations
submit their particulars and software assets, and the server uses open source iTop to manage the data.
I wrote a
number of other books describing Web and Mobile development with HTMl5 and
databases, covering topics including DDD.
My fourth
book was about Elevate Web Builder (EWB), an excellent RAD development
environment which can be used to build beautiful HTML5/JavaScript/Ajax
applications using tried and true structures of Pascal. It’s like Delphi for the Web.
My fifth
book built on EWB from the fourth book and added mORMot,
an open source database middleware which talks to all major databases but spits
out JSON for REST and highly secure open web based systems.
Still
keeping with the EWB theme, my sixth book filled with extra components for
EWB. These include TColorGrid,
TTreeView, TSimpleHTMLEditor,
TGraph, etc.
I wrote a
free software distribution system called Tuque.
It’s like MS SCCM, but which works with Linux, Windows and OS/X clients,
and uses a Web based GUI. The servers
typically run on Unix. We use it to
support a couple thousand computers at the University of Waterloo.
In 2018 I
used Machine Learning to pinpoint the source of errors on PCs on my Faculty’s
network.
To see some
of my slideshows, see http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~erick/presentations
For
history, my earliest work has been referenced in three books to my knowledge:
· Undocumented DOS 2nd Ed.
– I contributed to the knowledge of file sharing in mid ‘80’s
· Idiot’s Guide to the Internet –
Talks about but misspells WATTCP
· MS-Kermit – WATTCP added TELNET
capabilities
That’s
in addition to my own books, most of which are available on Amazon or on my web
store.