Resume of Eric Steven Raymond

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Work Experience

Technical Director, Chester County InterLink (10-93 to present)

In September 1993, I co-founded Chester County InterLink (CCIL) as its Technical Director. CCIL is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization chartered to provide free InterNet access to the residents of Chester County, Pennsylvania. At last count, it had over two thousand users and was gaining about fifty a week.

My responsibilities during this period have included:

The technical design of the entire project. I specified and set up the hardware, acquired and configured the OS, designed and implemented most of our custom software, and held primary responsibility for administration until mid-October 1994. I remain the project's only full-time member.
Budgeting and planning for the project's technical side. I wrote the expansion plan that secured us our first $16,000 in donations.
Recruitment and management of a team of between four and six programmers, who have enhanced the system software and provided needed administrative services.
Design and implementation of InterLink, a multi-user UNIX BBS that we use as our front end for ordinary user accounts. InterLink pushed beyond 1994's state-of-the-art in BBS systems and has attracted national attention in the Internet Service Provider community. To check it out, see locke.ccil.org [ http://www.ccil.org/ ].
System and network administration, including DNS and Ethernet management on a multi-host network with 56K to the Internet.
Co-responsibility for decisions on numerous policy issues, including common-carrier vs. publisher status, liability protection, content control, etc.
Numerous fund-raising presentations to corporate audiences.

Independent Consulting (5-85 to 10-93)

During this period, my activities included:

Production and release of The New Hacker's Dictionary (see below).
Maintainence and extension of the GNU Emacs editor.
Contract software design and development for various local businesses including a medical practice, a newspaper, a truck-dispatch service, and a computer peripherals manufacturer.
A rewrite of the USENET netnews software.

Rabbit Software (5/83 to 5/85)

Technical Specialist, Operating Systems. I was one of the first 7 technical hires at Rabbit's startup. I designed and coded major subsystems for 3270 emulation products. I developed a multiple-task windowing package involving substantial device-driver modifications. I wrote and maintained house standards for C and UNIX portability/style, documentation practices and general software engineering technique. I acted as system administrator, support person, toolsmith and resident UNIX expert for up to 20 programmers on BSD 4.1, System III, System V, XENIX and FOS environments running over a VAX-11/750, several AT&T 3B series machines, a handful of 68000-based UNIX boxes and the IBM PC/AT.

MicroCorp (11/81 to 4/83)

Lead Programmer. I designed and developed business software products for various Z80, 8088 and 68000-based micros. I coauthored Intelliterm, a successful serial-communications program for the IBM PC. I wrote UNBASIC, a preprocessor to translate Pascal-like structured BASIC into IBM BASIC.

Burroughs Federal and Special Systems Group (11/80 to 11/81)

Software Engineer. I developed software for Burroughs's Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Programming Environments research group. Worked on LISP development tools, algebraic reduction systems, theorem-provers and formal specification languages. I participated in the design of an actor language.

Wharton School Computer Center (8/77 to 10-79)

I did consulting, support and development work in APL, Pascal and LISP for various Wharton School projects on a DEC KL-10 under TOPS-10. I wrote a LISP manual that was still reported in use five years later. I was one of two local experts most involved in DEC's beta-test of APL-SF.

Technical Skills

Hardware:

I have developed software on the following machines: The Osborne 1 Z80 micro. TRS Models I, II and III. The IBM PC, XT and AT; also various generic AT-bus 386 boxes. The Apple II and Macintosh. Sun, Fortune, AT&T 7300/3B1 and several other generic 68000-based UNIX boxes. DEC-10, PDP-8 and VAX 11-750 minicomputers. The AT&T 3B series machines, including the 3B2, 3B10, 3B15 and 3B20. The Pyramid 90x. Burroughs 1900, 6700 and 6800 mainframes; also B/20 and B/25 workstations.

My home computer is a PCI-bus Pentium 133 running Red Hat Linux.

Operating Systems:

I am expert in UNIX in all its major flavors and lookalikes. I have also developed software under MS-DOS, the Macintosh Environment, BTOS, CP/M, TOPS-10, and CANDE.

Languages:

My high level languages include C, LISP, Pascal, APL, FORTRAN and several BASICS; I am best, and highly expert, at C and LISP. My assemblers include Z80, 80x86, and 680xx. I am also accomplished in various special-purpose languages such as YACC, LEX, DBASE III, PROGRESS, and EMACS Lisp. I think of myself as a language designer, have a strong interest in language and compiler issues and tend to learn new ones quickly.

Communications Skills

I speak well and can write effective prose at any technical level. I once achieved modest success as a performing artist, and learned from that how to read and hold an audience. I read technical French, Spanish and Italian and have (retained) some understanding of them spoken.

Product Credits

"UNBASIC" for TRS-80 models I, II and III.
"Intelliterm" for IBM PC, TRS-80 Models I, III (coauthor)
"6700 Standard-LISP" for Burroughs 6700/6800 mainframes (coauthor)
"RVIEW Line Editor" for Burroughs B20 and B25 workstations
"Windows-Plus" for VAX-11/750 under 4.1BSD and the PC/AT under XENIX.
"Rabbit 3270-Plus" for many UNIX systems (contributor)
"UniPress EMACS V2" for many UNIX systems (credited contributor)
"GNU Emacs 18.5[2-8], 19, and 20" for many UNIX systems (credited contributor)
"NetHack 3.0" for many UNIX systems, via USENET (credited contributor)
"keybind", a utility for remapping SVr3 and XENIX keyboards. (USENET)
"nrtools", tools for using dot-matrix printers with nroff. (USENET)
"spkr", a speaker-control device driver for UNIX on AT386 machines. (USENET)
"C-INTERCAL", an INTERCAL-to-C compiler. (USENET)
gud.el, interactive symbolic debugger control from EMACS (Emacs 19).
vc.el, a version control front-end for RCS or SCCS under EMACS (Emacs 19).
I wrote the IEEE reference implementation of PILOT.
ncurses, a freeware screen-handling library with an API compatibe with System V curses(3). (principal co-developer).
The InterLink multi-user UNIX BBS.
I maintain fetchmail, a freeware utility for retrieving and forwarding mail from POP2/POP3/IMAP mailservers.
keeper, the archivist's robot assistant used to maintain the Metalab site.
I am listed in the Linux credits file.

My technical tutorial The Hitchhiker's Guide to X386 Video Timing (or, Tweaking Your Monitor Modes for Fun and Profit) is included as an official part of the XFree86 distribution of X11R6 and the high-performance SGCS X server.

I have been an active member of the GNU project, and was principally responsible for EMACS Lisp maintenance between December 1991 and June 1993. Many of the new features in Emacs 19 were my work.

I maintain numerous other well-regarded FAQ and HOWTO documents, including the Linux Distributions HOWTO [ http://metalab.unc.edu/mdw/HOWTO/Distribution-HOWTO.html ], the Linux Installation HOWTO [ http://metalab.unc.edu/mdw/HOWTO/Installation-HOWTO.html ], the Software Release Practice HOWTO [ http://metalab.unc.edu/mdw/HOWTO/Software-Release-Practice-HOWTO.html ], the So You Want To Be A UNIX Wizard? [ http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/loginataka.html ] FAQ (aka The Loginataka), and the How To Become A Hacker [ http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html ] FAQ.

Publication Credits

I have the following magazine credits:

Going Forth, PC Magazine Volume 1 Number 3.
Understanding UNIX, PC Magazine Volume 3 Number 10.
Assemblers Without Ulcers, PC Tech Journal Volume 2 Number 3.
Standards Everywhere, Byte, January 1992.
Building The Perfect Box, Linux Journal #36, April 1997.
Numerous reviews and short pieces for UNIX TODAY and Linux Journal.

Understanding UNIX was the lead article of a special section, and only missed being the cover story because IBM released the ill-fated PC Junior that week. Assemblers Without Ulcers was for years standard course material at the Boston Computer Society's technical seminars.

I have the following book credits:

I was the principal researcher and author of Portable C and UNIX Systems Programming, ISBN 0-13-686494-5 from the Prentice-Hall Software series, 249pp. (the name "J. E. Lapin" appearing on the cover was a corporate fiction).

The Waite Group's 1987 book The UNIX Papers (ISBN 81262-22578, 517pp) features a paper by me entitled The Future of UNIX and Open Systems Standards. I was also the major technical reviewer for the book.

I conceived and edited The New Hacker's Dictionary (MIT Press, 1991, ISBN 0-262-18145-2). This book received enthusiastic reviews in The New York Times, PC Magazine, Byte, PC World, UNIX Review, IEEE Spectrum, and numerous other popular and technical magazines. In August 1993 the second edition was cited in Newsweek.

The second edition of The New Hacker's Dictionary came out September 1993 and, so far, has been equally successful. The book seems well on its way towards becoming an institution, and will probably outlive my tenure as editor. Sales to date are about 40,000 copies.

The advent of the September 1996 third edition led to interviews in Wired (August 1996) and People (October 1996).

In November 1996 O'Reilly Associates published the second edition of Learning GNU Emacs, ISBN 0-937175-84-6. I am a credited coauthor of this edition.

In early 1998, I was the editor of Linux Undercover, the compendium of Linux documentation published by Red Hat Software.

I have the following miscellaneous other credits:

Language I originated has been incorporated in the POSIX Draft proposed UNIX standard (re tape archive backup formats and extensions to multi-volume operation) and in the ANSI X3J11 Draft Proposed C Standard (re the asm() optional extension).

I have twice been a guest lecturer at the Institute For Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. I ran workshops there on Emacs and Internet for the technical staff and research scientists.

I was selected to be a member of the program committee for the first Conference on Freely Redistributable Software, held in Boston February 1996.

I was an invited speaker at Linux Kongress '97, the Atlanta Linux Showcase, and the first Perl Conference in 1997. My paper, The Cathedral And The Bazaar [ http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/index.html ], was very well received. This paper was subsequently described by Netscape Communications, Inc., as a major factor in their decision to release their client software as open source.

I have also been an invited speaker at Visionarios 2000 in April 1998, Linux Expo in June 98, USENIX '98 in July, and gave the plenary address in the Freenix track at Uniforum '98.

I was one of the invitees at Tim O'Reilly's history-making Freeware Summit in April 1998. Other invitees included Linus Torvalds, Larry Wall, Phil Zimmerman, Guido Van Rossum, and John Gilmore.

I was also the keynote speaker at Open Source Developer Day in August 1998 and at the 7th Python Conference in November 1998.

I am a member of Merrill Lynch's Technology Advisory Board.

I earned a design assistance credit in the 6.1 edition of Close Action (Tempest Games), a highly-regarded set of rules for simulation of Napoleonic-era naval warfare.

I have appeared as a supporting artist on two record albums: A Song of Gods Gone Mad (Daystar Records, 1980), and Full Circle (Third Day Records, 1995).

Education

Undergraduate studies (including some graduate-level courses) in mathematics and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania.

I have never taken any courses in computer science or software engineering.

Personal Data

My interests (outside of computers) include science fiction, wargaming, writing, martial arts (I hold a World Tae-Kwon-Do Federation 1st Dan Black Belt and have fought in battleline with SCA heavy weapons), firearms, epic poetry and music (I play and compose on flute, guitar, hand drums and voice, and occasionally perform with local bands in the Chester County area). I have a novel (SF, titled Shadows and Stars) nearly completed.

Date: 1999/01/03 20:25:21