Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

430 Simonyi, Charlestests for the presence of the file log.txt. If the file exists, itscontents are displayed by the “cat” command.When “myinfo” is typed at the UNIX prompt, the outputmight look like the following:$ myinfoMy username: hrhMy current directory: /home/h/r/hrhMy disk usage:132 ./.nn4 ./Mail48 ./.elm296 .System status:7:34pm up 56 day(s), 20:39, 73 users, loadaverage: 3.62, 3.45, 3.49This is a test file.Further ReadingGite, Vivek G. “Linux Shell Scripting Tutorial.” Available online.URL: http://www.freeos.com/guides/lsst/. Accessed August21, 2007.Kochan, Stephen, and Patrick Wood. Unix Shell Programming. 3rded. Indianapolis: Sams, 2003.Newham, Cameron. Learning the Bash Shell. 3rd ed. Sebastapol,Calif.: O’Reilly Media, 2005.Quigley, Ellie. UNIX Shells by Example. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River,N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2004.Robbins, Arnold, and Bill Rosenblatt. Learning the Korn Shell. 2nded. Sebastapol, Calif.: O’Reilly Media, 2002.Sobell, Mark G. A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, andShell Programming. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall,2005.Simonyi, Charles(1948– )Hungarian-AmericanSoftware Engineer, EntrepreneurBorn in Budapest, Hungary, on September 10, 1948, CharlesSimonyi shaped the architecture of Microsoft’s dominantsoftware applications for many years, devised a new programmingparadigm and established a company to promoteit, and, along the way, became the fifth civilian “space tourist”to visit the International Space Station.Simonyi’s father was a professor of electrical engineering.In high school, Simonyi worked as a night watchmanat a computer laboratory. When he expressed his interest,one of the engineers taught him how to program; he soonwrote a compiler and sold it to a government department.After working for a Danish company for a couple of years,Simonyi moved to the United States in 1968, attending theUniversity of California, Berkeley, and earning a B.S. inengineering mathematics in 1972. Moving to Stanford Universityfor graduate study, Simonyi was also hired by XeroxPARC, where he shared ideas with innovators in computerinterfaces and networking. Simonyi received his Ph.D. incomputer science from Stanford in 1977. In his dissertationSimonyi showed his early interest in “metaprogramming”—thedevelopment of ways to coordinate programsand provide them with a higher-level context.In 1981 Simonyi applied directly to Bill Gates for a job(see Gates, Bill and Microsoft Corporation). At MicrosoftSimonyi took charge of the development of the productsthat would dominate the office software market bythe end of the 1980s, including Word and Excel. Simonyialso brought to Microsoft new program structure ideas thathe had seen at Xerox PARC—see object-oriented programming.At this time Simonyi also developed a standardsystem for naming variables that soon became known asHungarian notation in honor of his ancestry.The tremendous success of Simonyi as a software developer(and Microsoft’s gargantuan revenue) made Simonyiindependently wealthy. However, in 2002 he decided tostrike out on his own, founding a company called IntentionalSoftware with his business partner Gregor Kiczales.The company develops and promotes an approach tosoftware design called intentional programming. (Simonyihad developed forerunners of this concept at Microsoft, butapparently the latter company lost interest in it, perhapsprompting Simonyi’s departure.)To develop an application, software engineers usingintentional programming begin by building a “toolbox” ofspecific functions needed for the area in which the programis intended to operate (such as insurance or banking).Domain experts—people who have “real world” knowledgeof that area—use a special editor to create a description ofhow the application must operate; thus the program is in asense designed not by the programmers, but by the peoplewho will guide its use. The program development systemthen connects the tools to the description to generate thefinal code, which can then be refined. An important featureof this process is that the specific intentions about what theprogram needs to do are preserved along with the code,with the result largely self-documenting. It is argued thatthis makes subsequent testing and modification of the softwaremuch faster and easier. The first commercial versionof this development system is expected in 2008.Space Tourist and PhilanthropistIn April 2007 Simonyi, an experienced pilot, fulfilled a lifelonginterest in space by riding a Russian Soyuz spacecraftto the International Space Station; the 10-day “vacation” costhim about $20 million. Simonyi chronicled his preparationsand the trip itself via his “Nerd in Space” Web site. (Simonyialso sails in his sleek luxury yacht Skat.)As a philanthropist, Simonyi established a professorshipfor the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University,as well one for Innovation in Teaching at Stanford. Hehas given tens of millions of dollars to various programsin the arts and sciences. As of 2007 Simonyi was datingdomestic arts entrepreneur and author Martha Stewart.While it remains uncertain how successful and influentialintentional programming will become, Simonyi hasbeen hailed by Bill Gates as “one of the great programmersof all time.”