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From Fortran to Fireworkz, a programmer's voyage
Stuart Swales, Acornsoft and Colton Software
Monday 21st September 2020, 7:45pm

Back in the 80s, Stuart Swales worked at Acornsoft producing software for the BBC Micro, particularly programming languages. When Acorn found themselves with no operating system for their super new ARM powered Archimedes, Stuart became part of the team for Project Arthur, coding parts of the OS that would become RISC OS.

In the 90s he moved on to become lead programmer at Colton Software, working on the integrated wordprocessor/spreadsheet/database application PipeDream and its "successor" Fireworkz. PipeDream and Fireworkz are now open source and free to download, and he still maintains them both. (Note Fireworkz Pro is still a commercial application available from R-Comp)

Stuart will be joining us from his cottage in Scotland to tell us about his long history with Acorn and RISC OS, and how it all started.

This meeting was held online via Zoom. The slides (130 pages!) can be downloaded here, and a recording (3hrs 48mins!) of it can be watched on YouTube.