Team leader of Bravo, the first WYSIWYG word processor (for the Alto at
XeroxParc). Team leader for
MicrosoftWord and other projects there. Inventor of
HungarianNotation, though he would argue he had a different purpose in mind for it than its current simple-minded application. Also started the
IntentionalProgramming project. And now a cosmonaut (
http://blog.intentionalsoftware.com/intentional_software/2006/04/space_news.html).
Interviews:
http://www.edge.org/digerati/simonyi/simonyi_p1.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20010221025151/www.rjh.org.uk/PAW/m1100.htm
Left Microsoft in September, 2002 to run a start-up (
http://www.intentsoft.com/).
"Mr. Simonyi's start-up, based in Bellevue, Wash., is called the
IntentionalSoftwareCorporation. Its goal is to build software tools and technology to make the task of programming less complicated and more productive. These programming tools may use graphic images or charts, as well as text-based computer languages, to represent the underlying programs."
Perhaps now we will see what is meant by
TimeForaParadigmShift. Charles was free to think, but now he will be free to innovate, and translate that innovation into knowledge as well as into
ProcessImprovementTools. It would be well if his new company is organized as a
LearningOrganization. In any case, it should be a hotbed of activity and a place worth watching. Time will tell.
Charles Simonyi endowed the Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, formerly held by Professor
RichardDawkins. See
http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/index.shtml
Recent Beet Tv interview September 2007:
Fortunate to have been a Space Tourist on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the
InternationalSpaceStation April 7, through April 22, 2007.
- His account of the experience
CategoryPerson