Rick De Natale

Another update as of February 2009

Since my last update, I've done some RubyLanguage and RubyOnRails freelancing, spent most of 2008 working for a Rails startup which ceased development in November, and I'm now once again trying to establish a freelance consultancy based on Ruby with or without Rails.

If you are interested my Ruby oriented blog is at http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com.

If you are an old buddy and want to reestablish contact, my linked in profile is at http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickdenatale

I guess it's time for another update:

I've been retired from IBM since mid-March of 2005. I manage to keep myself busier than before, doing entirely what I want to do without management input, well except from my wife.

On the software front, I'm the home sysadmin, playing with Linux and lots of FOSS software and trying to keep the webserver, and email working. I've been sampling lots of languages, most recently Ruby which has lots of neat ideas, but probably too much syntax for an aging Smalltalker like me.

I a mediawiki based wiki which focuses on the early history of US manned spaceflight at http://www.mercuryspacecraft.com/ I'm also working on a book on Project Mercury with plans to publish it on lulu when it's done, although the wiki has had unmoderated posting turned off since I had far more in the way of wikispam than contributions, and the book is on indefinite hold.

If anyone cares, here's a little of what's been happening to me RickDeNatale over the 4 years since I visited the mecca of wikidom

My assignment to ObjectTechnologyInternational ended a couple of years ago. My trail at OTI ended up in a group which was working with customers implementing Telematics functions in embedded Java. This sub-group of the OTI lab got absorbed back into IBM at the beginning of 2002. In mid-2003 I transferred to the IBM PVC and Standards department. I am currently working out of my home, overlooking a cul-de-sac where about a dozen young children play in random patterns and intervals, and wishing that time and my bad back would allow me to get out on the golf course more often. I'm still trying to break 110!

I also spend time playing with various computer toys. Which is what led me here. I started looking at various wiki implementations to use to document my own system, and decided to check out what my old friends might be doing here.

If you want to reach me, the best bet is rick.denatale@gmail.com

Anything after this line is pretty old.

Wow, has it really been over three years since I've visited Wiki! Having missed the last two OopsLa-s, I just returned to attend the 2ndVancouverOOPSLA for another invigorating week with WardAndKent, and many others, and got yet another injection of ExtremeProgramming from KentBeck. RickDeNatale has been attempting to practice ExtremeProgramming even on solo projects (KentBeck assures me that it's okay to practice PairProgramming by yourself, as long as you are schizoid).

RickDeNatale started doing OOProgramming many years ago at a small company called IBM <G>.

In early days this took the form of inventing a hybrid language called ClassC. RickDeNatale had the same basic idea that BradCox did of adding the Smalltalk message semantics to C by way of simple additions to the language.

After experiencing the difficulties of dealing with a hybrid language (which Rick confessed at a panel entitled "OOP in the Real World" at OOPSlA/ECOOP '90 in Ottawa), RickDeNatale got access to real Smalltalk implementations and hasn't been the same since.

RickDeNatale proposed combining the functions of the NextInterfaceBuilder, with the interactiveDevelopmentEnvironment of Smalltalk which led to a project in IBM called the ApplicationBuilder?, which for better or worse eventually led to popularity of the VisualProgramming movement fostered by VisualAge.

RickDeNatale served as secretary of X3J20 which drafted a Smalltalk standard for ANSI.

RickDeNatale was also technical lead of the team which produced the DistributedFeatureForIBMSmalltalk.

RickDeNatale now finds himself working at ObjectTechnologyInternational in the Raleigh Lab, where he explores server issues for both Smalltalk and Java.

20100724 Thank you: I just fixed the broken link to Butler Lampson's paper. -- RickDeNatale

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