Dan Corwin
Short Bio
I left Wang in '86 to start www.Lexikos.com (which then had no web site full of shameless self-promotion, just a few early SBIR contracts). When the hi-tech boom finally withered in the early '90s, I shrink-wrapped it, and begin job-shop contracting on anything I could get. A divorce that turned nasty also kept me busy for years.I began Java/Internet work in early '96; I've been there ever since. Moved up to Maine ("the way life should be") last May, planning to reopen Lexikos as a Java consultancy and try to get back into AI work - see W3C's RDF specs.
So far this downturn has not made that easy, but in my old age I'm developing patience. Meanwhile, if you're ever driving up this way, let me know first, and I'll happily show you some of Portland's sights.
Stories and Anecdotes
I joined Wang May '75. Earliest work on WP was focused on using the VS as hardware base. After a couple months of abstract flow charts with me on coding a WP editor to match their User manual, Harold & Dave disappeared with Don Dunning (& Dr Wang, others?).When I next saw them, a few days after 9/28, the name and design we all now know was first revealed to me. They also explained to me what an 8080 chip was. Never before had I heard of it.
A day or so later (10/3) my first child was born, so I became oblivious for at least a week. But I remembered them as almost sharing birthdays for many years after that.
After I again reawoke, Dave was coding up an 8080 assembler and a debugger, so ??? could write keyboard interrupts, and I started firming up the editor design per Don's early "TM" series specs on how the "slave" would control its screen memory.
We announced and showed WP working at a press conference in NYC, in June '76, then I went back home and rewrote most code "right" (from scratch) with Paul's guidance over the next 18-24 mos.
Later on, Dunning (at least) got some patent(s) on 928 architecture. I always figured it was his concept, which Harold and Dave helped to flesh out and realize. Harold, please jump in here with details.