Andrew Stone (computer programmer)

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Andrew Stone
Andrew C Stone being interviewed by NBC.jpg
Andrew C. Stone
Born (1956-06-12) June 12, 1956 (age 68)
Cincinnati, Ohio
OccupationComputer programmer, former architect
Nationality American
Website
stone.com

Andrew "Andy" C. Stone is an American computer programmer best known for his iOS app Twittelator, [1] [2] which to date has sold over a million units for the iPhone and the iPad. The founder, director, and principal programmer for Stone Design Corporation, Albuquerque, New Mexico. In his 25 plus year career as a programmer, he has published over 35 software titles for Hypercard, the NeXT workstation, Mac OS X, and for iOS iPhones and iPads. He retired from software development in 2015.

Contents

Hypercard

Andrew Stone was a contributing author to the Waite Group's Tricks of the HyperTalk Masters [3]

Stone developed software for Sandia National Laboratories called ProtoTymer [4] which allowed physical interfaces to be trial tested in a software version.

NeXT

Fascinated by Steve Jobs’ vision for the personal computer, Stone was the first independent developer for the NeXT Computer to ship a shrink-wrap product, TextArt [5] [6] in October 1989. TextArt allowed designers to manipulate PostScript text with virtual knobs, dials and sliders. By 1990, TextArt had evolved into Create, [7] a drawing program which shipped in 1991. At the same time, Stone Design developed a multimedia database manager called DataPhile. [8]

Stone Design was a leader in electronic software distribution on NeXT and was a constant advertising presence on the first ever app store which was also invented using NeXT tools, The Electronic AppWrapper. According to an employee at the Paget Press (the startup responsible for the first app store) it was originally AppWrapper #3 that was first demonstrated to Steve Jobs [9] and showcased Stone Design Apps. where applications like Create and DataPhile were selling along with 3D Reality and other Stone Design Apps. Stone Design Apps can still be found on the iOS App Store today, making Stone Design perhaps the longest running developer actively using electronic distribution via any app store service.

A Screen Shot of Stone Design's 3DReality running on the Electronic AppWrapper, the first app store The Electronic AppWrapper 3D Reality Screen Shot.png
A Screen Shot of Stone Design's 3DReality running on the Electronic AppWrapper, the first app store

Besides Stone's notoriety in the NeXT World as the first independent software developer to ship shrinkwrap product for the NeXT Computer, were the legendary raves [10] he and John Perry Barlow threw over 3 years, the first being held at the Exploratorium in October 1992. These parties are still being discussed today because of the mixing of LSD and the NSA together in the same space.

Stone's participation with the first government sanctioned Dimethyltryptamine research with Dr. Rick Strassman in Albuquerque in the early 1990s led to a collaboration in the underwriting of DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences, [11] documenting the research. Andrew Stone was a featured DMT volunteer in the documentary film DMT - The Spirit Molecule. [12] Andrew Stone serves on the board of the Cottonwood Research Foundation with Dr. Strassman, which provides scientific research into the nature of consciousness.

Between that time and Apple's purchase of the NeXT Corporation in December 1996, Stone Design developed a number of other products for the NeXT, including 3DReality, a 3D modeling and rendering package and CheckSum, a personal finance application.

Macintosh OS X

When NeXT became part of Apple on December 20, 1996, [13] Andrew Stone was asked to help introduce NeXTStep to Mac users [14] and developers. He demoed Create in the keynote presentations at both MacWorld Boston and WWDC in 1997. He was a contributing editor for Mactech for several years [15]

Stone Design began to develop for the pre-OS X Macintosh, turning out a healthy number of products for a small independent company, including PhotoToWeb, a slideshow & photo application for the Web; SliceAndDice, a tool for making javascript navigation bars; PStill, a conversion utility for turning PostScript and EPS files into .PDF files; TimeEqualsMoney, a time/expense tracking and invoicing application; PackUpAndGo, a cross-platform archiving tool; and GIFfun for making animated .gif files. All of these applications were eventually bundled together as Stone Studio, but the company continued to develop software, 16 applications in all, which eventually found their way into a single package called Stone Works, which included all the titles above plus eight additional applications including: FontSight, GlobalWarmth, iMaginator, Stone Studio widget, PreferenceCommander, VideationNation, StarMores, and Xaos – Videator Enabled.

iPhone & iPad

In 2008, Stone began to release apps for the iPhone. His first product, Twittelator, became one of the best selling apps for the micro-blogging service Twitter. Other products included iGraffiti, TalkingPics, Gesture, MobileMix, Soundbite, Pulsar, iCreated, TweetTV and Intentionizer. He has contributed to other apps such as 140Characters, The Daily, Wine.com for iPad, WeGetIn, Trekaroo and Bandojo.

Personal life

Since his retirement in 2015, Stone spends his time working on his organic farm, doing yoga, reading, hiking, and advocating for solar energy. He's married to internationally syndicated children's public radio producer Katie Stone, and has four children and four grandchildren. He has written an extensive number of articles on programming with the Cocoa code base. He also spearheaded a group called “the Cocoa Conspiracy,” [16] a loose knit ad hoc professional organization for iOS app developers based in New Mexico.

Interviews with the Press

Notes

    Related Research Articles

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">HyperCard</span> Hypermedia system for Apple Macintosh and Apple IIGS computers

    HyperCard is a software application and development kit for Apple Macintosh and Apple IIGS computers. It is among the first successful hypermedia systems predating the World Wide Web.

    macOS Operating system for Apple computers

    macOS, originally Mac OS X, previously shortened as OS X, is an operating system developed and marketed by Apple since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and laptop computers, it is the second most widely used desktop OS, after Microsoft Windows and ahead of all Linux distributions, including ChromeOS.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">NeXT</span> American technology company (1985–1997)

    NeXT, Inc. was an American technology company headquartered in Redwood City, California that specialized in computer workstations for higher education and business markets, and later developed web software. It was founded in 1985 by CEO Steve Jobs, the Apple Computer co-founder who had been forcibly removed from Apple that year. NeXT debuted with the NeXT Computer in 1988, and released the NeXTcube and smaller NeXTstation in 1990. The series had relatively limited sales, with only about 50,000 total units shipped. Nevertheless, the object-oriented programming and graphical user interface were highly influential trendsetters of computer innovation.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">NeXTSTEP</span> Operating system from NeXT Computer

    NeXTSTEP is a discontinued object-oriented, multitasking operating system based on the Mach kernel and the UNIX-derived BSD. It was developed by NeXT Computer, founded by Steve Jobs, in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was initially used for its range of proprietary workstation computers such as the NeXTcube. It was later ported to several other computer architectures.

    Darwin is the core Unix-like operating system of macOS, iOS, watchOS, tvOS, iPadOS, visionOS, and bridgeOS. It previously existed as an independent open-source operating system, first released by Apple Inc. in 2000. It is composed of code derived from NeXTSTEP, FreeBSD, other BSD operating systems, Mach, and other free software projects' code, as well as code developed by Apple.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenStep</span> Defunct object-oriented application programming interface specification

    OpenStep is an object-oriented application programming interface (API) specification developed by NeXT. It provides a framework for building graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and developing software applications. OpenStep was designed to be platform-independent, allowing developers to write code that could run on multiple operating systems, including NeXTSTEP, Windows NT, and various Unix-based systems. It has influenced the development of other GUI frameworks, such as Cocoa for macOS, and GNUstep.

    Cocoa is Apple's native object-oriented application programming interface (API) for its desktop operating system macOS.

    NeXT Computer is a workstation computer that was developed, marketed, and sold by NeXT Inc. It was introduced in October 1988 as the company's first and flagship product, at a price of US$6,500, aimed at the higher-education market. It was designed around the Motorola 68030 CPU and 68882 floating-point coprocessor, with a clock speed of 25 MHz. Its NeXTSTEP operating system is based on the Mach microkernel and BSD-derived Unix, with a proprietary GUI using a Display PostScript-based back end. According to the Science Museum Group, "The enclosure consists of a 1-foot die-cast magnesium cube-shaped black case, which led to the machine being informally referred to as 'The Cube'."

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Taligent</span> Software company (1992–1998)

    Taligent Inc. was an American software company. Based on the Pink object-oriented operating system conceived by Apple in 1988, Taligent Inc. was incorporated as an Apple/IBM partnership in 1992, and was dissolved into IBM in 1998.

    The history of macOS, Apple's current Mac operating system formerly named Mac OS X until 2011 and then OS X until 2016, began with the company's project to replace its "classic" Mac OS. That system, up to and including its final release Mac OS 9, was a direct descendant of the operating system Apple had used in its Mac computers since their introduction in 1984. However, the current macOS is a UNIX operating system built on technology that had been developed at NeXT from the 1980s until Apple purchased the company in early 1997.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple Mail</span> Email client by Apple Inc.

    Mail is an email client included by Apple Inc. with its operating systems macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and visionOS. Mail grew out of NeXTMail, which was originally developed by NeXT as part of its NeXTSTEP operating system, after Apple's acquisition of NeXT in 1997.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">The Omni Group</span> American software company

    The Omni Group is an American software company that develops software for the macOS, iOS, and watchOS platforms. The Omni Group was informally founded as a NEXTSTEP consulting company in 1989 by Wil Shipley, who immediately brought on Ken Case and Tim Wood. The three incorporated together under the name Omni Development, Inc. in 1993, because the name "Omni Group" was taken by another Seattle firm. Omni initially produced custom database software for the NEXTSTEP platform for clients such as the William Morris Agency and McCaw Cellular Communications. During this period they also ported a number of games to NEXTSTEP, then later to Mac OS X. Around 2000 the company decided to start focusing on their own consumer applications for the Mac, and as of 2004 the vast majority of their revenue came from their consumer products.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">WriteNow</span> Word processor application

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    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhapsody (operating system)</span> Apple operating system

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    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Forstall</span> American software engineer

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    References

    1. ↑ Albuquerque Journal, 4/22/2009, Fleck, John. "Twitter Guru". Page 1, above the fold. Twitter Guru
    2. ↑ LeVitus, Bob. Incredible iPad Apps. 2011. ISBN   978-0-470-92979-7. Wiley Publishing Inc. Pages 158-159.
    3. ↑ the Waite Group. Tricks of the HyperTalk Masters. 1989. ISBN   0-672-48431-5. Hayden Books. Chapters 11 and 12
    4. ↑ Miller, Dwight P. and Stone, Andrew C. 1989. "ProtoTymer: Human Performance Instrumentation for HyperCard Prototyping." Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 33rd Annual Meeting 1989 Pages 249-253
    5. ↑ Philip Robinson. Fall, 1991. "Brick by Brick". NeXTWORLD. Volume 1, Number 3, Page 10
    6. ↑ Bruce F. Webster. 1991. "Key Software". NeXTWORLD. Volume 1, Number 1, Page 59
    7. ↑ Rick Reynolds. 1991. "TouchType and Create!". NeXTWORLD. Volume 1, Number 1, Page 79
    8. ↑ Ben Calica. Spring, 1992. "Flat and Sharp". NeXTWORLD. Volume 2, Issue 1, Page 57
    9. ↑ Carey, Richard (17 July 2015). "Electronic Recollections". Richard Carey, Writer and Author.
    10. ↑ Lt. Sullivan. February 1993. "Rave On". NeXTWORLD. Volume 3, Issue 1, Page 8
    11. ↑ Strassman, Rick. DMT: The Spirit Molecule. 2001. ISBN   0-89281-927-8. Park Street Press. Page xii.
    12. ↑ Schultz, Mitch. Joe Rogan. DMT - The Spirit Molecule. Time Warner. 2010. DVD, streaming Netflix and iTunes "..:: DMT - the Spirit Molecule | Documentary ::". Archived from the original on 2012-09-19. Retrieved 2012-09-25.
    13. ↑ c|net. Kawamoto, Dawn, et al. 12/20/1996. Apple acquires NeXT, Jobs.
    14. ↑ Alibi Weekly. 07/14/1997. Silfer, Kyle. "The Hacker & The Heretic". Albuquerque. Cover Story.
    15. ↑ Stone, Andrew C. 1997. "Porting to Rhapsody from OpenStep" MacTech Volume 13, Issue 7
    16. ↑ Santa Fe New Mexican, 2012/09/21, Life And Science, section 3, page 3, Albuquerque programmer brings app developers together
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