From Predator Plants to Concordance with Java

An airhacks.fm conversation with Volker Simonis (@volker_simonis)
about: early computing experiences with Schneider CPC (Amstrad in
UK) with Z80 CPU, CP/M operating system as an add-on that provided
a real file system, programming in Basic and Turbo Pascal on early
computers, discussion about gaming versus programming interests,
using a 9-pin needle printer for school work, programming on pocket
computers with BASIC in school, memories of Digital Research's CP/M
and DR-DOS competing with MS-DOS, HiMEM memory management in early
operating systems, programming in Logo language with turtle
graphics and fractals, fascination with Lindenmayer systems
(L-systems) for simulating biological growth patterns, interest in
biology and carnivorous plants, transition to PCs with floppy disk
drives, using SGI Iris workstations at university with IRIX
operating system, early experiences with Linux installed from
floppy disks, challenges of configuring X Window System,
programming graphics on interlaced monitors, early work with HP
using Tickle/Tk and python around 1993, first experiences with Java
around version 0.8/0.9, attraction to Java's platform-independent
networking and graphics capabilities, using Blackdown Java for
Linux created by Johan Vos, freelance work creating Java applets
for accessing databases of technical standards, PhD work creating
software for analyzing parallel text corpora in multiple languages,
developing internationalization and XML capabilities in Java Swing
applications, career at Sun Microsystems porting MaxDB to Solaris,
transition to SAP to work on JVM development, Adabas and MaxDB,
reflections on ABAP programming language at SAP and its
database-centric nature

Volker Simonis on twitter: @volker_simonis