Jonathan Sachs
Encyclopedia
Jonathan Sachs was the programmer who co-founded Lotus Development Corporation
with Mitch Kapor
in 1982 and created the first version of the Lotus 1-2-3
spreadsheet program. Sachs left Lotus in 1985 and now develops photo-editing software for his own Cambridge, Massachusetts based company, Digital Light & Color, which has been distributing its product, Picture Window, since 1994.
Sachs was born in Baltimore, Maryland and received his BS in math from MIT
in 1970. He later worked at MIT for several years, where he wrote the influential STOIC
language, at Data General
, and at Concentric Data Systems
.
1-2-3 was notable for its speed and efficiency. The original program was implemented in the assembly language
of the PC (Intel 8088
), as opposed to a higher level language such as C
. It was also nearly bug-free, and introduced the letter hierarchical menus still used in Windows applications. Later versions of 1-2-3 would be implemented in C and were much larger and more complex.
Lotus Software
Lotus Software is a software company with headquarters in Westford, Massachusetts...
with Mitch Kapor
Mitch Kapor
Mitchell David Kapor is the founder of Lotus Development Corporation and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3. He is also a co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and was the first chair of the Mozilla Foundation...
in 1982 and created the first version of the Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus 1-2-3 is a spreadsheet program from Lotus Software . It was the IBM PC's first "killer application"; its huge popularity in the mid-1980s contributed significantly to the success of the IBM PC in the corporate environment.-Beginnings:...
spreadsheet program. Sachs left Lotus in 1985 and now develops photo-editing software for his own Cambridge, Massachusetts based company, Digital Light & Color, which has been distributing its product, Picture Window, since 1994.
Sachs was born in Baltimore, Maryland and received his BS in math from MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
in 1970. He later worked at MIT for several years, where he wrote the influential STOIC
STOIC
STOIC was a variant of Forth.It started out at the MIT and Harvard Biomedical Engineering Centre in Boston, and was written in the mid 1970s by Jonathan Sachs...
language, at Data General
Data General
Data General was one of the first minicomputer firms from the late 1960s. Three of the four founders were former employees of Digital Equipment Corporation. Their first product, the Data General Nova, was a 16-bit minicomputer...
, and at Concentric Data Systems
Concentric Data Systems
Concentric Data Systems, Inc. was founded in December 1979 by John J. Henderson and Jonathan M. Sachs, both having left their jobs as system programmers at Data General Corporation. Originally, the company undertook a variety of software consulting projects for the Data General line of computers...
.
1-2-3 was notable for its speed and efficiency. The original program was implemented in the assembly language
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
of the PC (Intel 8088
Intel 8088
The Intel 8088 microprocessor was a variant of the Intel 8086 and was introduced on July 1, 1979. It had an 8-bit external data bus instead of the 16-bit bus of the 8086. The 16-bit registers and the one megabyte address range were unchanged, however...
), as opposed to a higher level language such as C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
. It was also nearly bug-free, and introduced the letter hierarchical menus still used in Windows applications. Later versions of 1-2-3 would be implemented in C and were much larger and more complex.