Roger Everett Gregory is a US computer programmer, technologist, and scientist. Gregory's work in
project Xanadu
Project Xanadu ( ) was the first hypertext project, founded in 1960 by Ted Nelson. Administrators of Project Xanadu have declared it superior to the World Wide Web, with the mission statement: "Today's popular software simulates paper. The World ...
made him one of the earliest pioneers of
hypertext
Hypertext is E-text, text displayed on a computer display or other electronic devices with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hypertext documents are interconnected by hyperlinks, which are typic ...
technology, which helped lay the foundations for the hyperlink technology that underlies the
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables Content (media), content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond Information technology, IT specialists and hobbyis ...
.
[
Gregory attended the ]University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
as a mathematics major. In the 1970s, he founded the Ann Arbor Computer Club, similar to the West Coast's Home Brew Computer Club.
In 1974 Gregory met Theodore Holm (Ted) Nelson, the author of Computer Lib/Dream Machines
''Computer Lib/Dream Machines'' is a 1974 book by Ted Nelson, printed as a two-front-cover paperback to indicate its " intertwingled" nature. Originally self-published by Nelson, it was republished with a foreword by Stewart Brand in 1987 by Micr ...
, and the thinker who coined the term "hypertext".[
The pair became friends. In 1979 Nelson convinced Gregory to move from Michigan and join him in ]Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
Swarthmore ( , ) is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Swarthmore was originally named Westdale in honor of painter Benjamin West, who was one of the early residents of the town. The name was changed to Swarthmore after ...
, the small, sleepy college town outside of Philadelphia where Nelson earned his undergraduate degree, and first conceived the concept of a hypertext. Gregory's first summer in Swarthmore, characterized by Xanadu insiders as the ''"Swarthmore Summer"'', was a productive time, where Nelson and Gregory enjoyed the collaboration of other volunteers, including Stuart Greene and Mark S. Miller.
In 1988 Nelson, Gregory, and other members of their team, all moved to Sausalito, California
Sausalito ( Spanish for "small willow grove") is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located southeast of Marin City, south-southeast of San Rafael, and about north of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge.
Sausalito's ...
, when Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that provides software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquarte ...
, a manufacturer of Computer aided design
Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...
software, purchased a controlling interest in the Xanadu Project.[
Later, as founder, CEO, CTO and Chairman of the Board of Xanadu Operating Company, Gregory led design and development of a hypertext technology that includes quotable documents with version control, fine-grained, bidirectional links, the ability to track intellectual property rights, and a mechanism to pay royalties.][ Gregory is also co-designer of a rotary rocket engine design based on the posthumous patents of ]Robert Goddard
Robert Hutchings Goddard (October 5, 1882 – August 10, 1945) was an American engineer, professor, physicist, and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, which was successfully lau ...
(U.S. patent 6212876 from 2001). Today he is a cofounder of Eyegorithm.
In 2010 Gregory was interviewed by the Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
.[
]
References
External links
* Letter detailing information on project Xanadu: https://www.fourmilab.ch/autofile/www/chapter2_64.html
Roger Gregory Interview at Ted Nelson Book Launch
Udanax, the open-source release of the Xanadu code base
for Squeak
Squeak is an object-oriented, class-based, and reflective programming language. It was derived from Smalltalk-80 by a group that included some of Smalltalk-80's original developers, initially at Apple Computer, then at Walt Disney Imaginee ...
, a Smalltalk implementation
* Roger's site documenting th
rotary rocket engine
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American computer programmers
University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni
{{US-scientist-stub