==============
Historic notes
==============

My computer career started in **1982** when I was 14 after attending
to a one-week programming camp.  Between 1982 and 1987 I passed some
of my spare time by writing simple BASIC programs on a TRS-80. My
father was at this time the proud possessor of a `Tandy TRS-80
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80>`_ with 64 KB of RAM and a
graphics resolution of 127 x 64 black and white pixels.

Before becoming a programmer, I studied Biology at the University of
Namur (French-speaking part of Belgium), during two years from
September 1986 to September 1988. Although I abandoned these
studies, I think that these two years were not lost for me. They had
a deep contribution on how I look at our world. I am most thankful
to J.L. De Sloover for his teachings.

In **June 1990** I finished my studies of Gradué en informatique.

After my studies I worked at Siemens-Nixdorf in Liège for 18 months
(from September **1990** to January **1992**). I got in touch with the
operating systems UNIX and BS/2000. One of my projects was for example
a parser who read a database definition file and generated a
PostScript file that visualized entity/relations diagrams of the
database.

In **December 1992** I resigned at Siemens-Nixdorf because I had
decided to change my vocation: I wanted to become a primary school
teacher.  Although programmer was a beautiful and secure job, I was
not fascinated by what I was doing. In Belgium it is theoretically
possible to make a diplome by learning on your own and passing a state
exam ("Jury central"). I applied for acceptance to this exam.  While
waiting for an answer from the government I started a half-time job as
programmer at PAC Systems in Eupen (January 1992).  Half a year later
I received the answer of the government: I was the only person asking
for a state exam as primary school teacher, and they would not
organize such an exam for me alone. This answer was not so
disappointing to me because meanwhile I was enjoying my new job very
much. I switched to full-time on September 1st, 1992. PAC Systems was
at this time a company with three employees. Now there are 5 employees
and three trainees.

During the next 8 years I worked at PAC Systems (renamed to AbAKUS_
in 2008) as software designer and programmer.  I developed TIM_, a
customizable software application for small and medium-sized
companies, used for invoicing, accountance, stock management, etc. TIM
is written in Clipper_ (now compiled using `Alaska xBase++
<http://www.alaska-software.com/products/xpp/xpp.shtm>`_) and runs on
MS-DOS.  Besides software development I also gave hotline and
technical support for our customers.  Besides working on TIM I gave
computer lessons about Office software (MS Word, Excel, Access) to
end-users in our training center or at the customers' offices.

In **1995** I started to work on a "TIM for Windows", using *Borland
C++*. In **March 1999** I switched to *Java*.

In **August 1998** I met my future wife for the first time in Taizé,
in **January 1999** I met her again in Milano.  In **April 1999** we
met for the third time for three days in Eupen and I fell seriously in
love with her. In **June** we met the fourth time in Tallinn. (...)

In **February 1999** I passed the "Ausbilder-Eignungsprüfung" in
Aachen (Germany) and became responsible for the training of a
19-year-old future software application developer (IT-Fachmann,
Fachrichtung Anwendungsentwicklung).

In **August 2000** I announced to my employer that I decided to move
to Estonia.  I agreed to stay another year so that they have a chance
to find a successor for me.

In **October 2000** I married.

In **August 2001** I moved to Estonia where I started a *sabbatical
year*: continued the Java port project on my own and without getting
money for it.  I once tried a *PHP* port that got quite far but is now
forgotten.

In **August 2002** I announced to the TIM users in Eastern Belgium
that I would continue to maintain and give support for TIM, but at new
conditions, requiring a yearly fee.

In **2002** I discovered the Python_ programming language and
abandoned C++, Java and PHP without tears.

When I discovered Django_ in the end of **2008**, after having worked
many months on my own database model, I was quickly fascinated.  The
ORM and database model based on 'apps' is simply genial.  The way of
how this is integrated into a web application server system: genial.
But a few things disturbed me with Django, and I felt that I need to
change them before I can be satisfied.  That's why I started to write
Lino.  After some search for a valuable user interface, I started to
use ExtJS_ in **August 2009**.


.. _AbAKUS: http://www.abakus.be
.. _TIM: http://tim.lino-framework.org/129.html
.. _Lino: http://www.lino-framework.org
.. _TIMtools: http://code.google.com/p/timtools/
.. _Clipper: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_(programming_language)
.. _Python: http://www.python.org/
.. _Django: https://www.djangoproject.com/
.. _ExtJS: http://www.sencha.com/products/extjs/
.. _Eupen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eupen
.. _atelier: http://atelier.lino-framework.org
.. _davlink: https://github.com/lsaffre/davlink