Don Hopkins
Encyclopedia
Don Hopkins is an artist
and programmer
specializing in human computer interaction and computer graphics
.
He inspired Richard Stallman
, who described him as a "very imaginative fellow", to use the term copyleft
. He coined Deep Crack as the name of the EFF DES cracker
, and built "AJAXian
" applications for the NeWS
window system 17 years before the term was coined. He ported the SimCity
computer game to several versions of Unix
and developed a multi player version of SimCity for X11, did much of the core programming of The Sims
, and developed robot control and personality simulation software for Will Wright's Stupid Fun Club.
He developed and refined pie menus for many platforms and applications including window manager
s, Emacs
, SimCity
and The Sims
, and published a frequently cited paper about pie menus at CHI'88 with Jack Callahan, Ben Shneiderman
and Mark Weiser
. He has published many free software
and open source
implementations of pie menus for X10
, X11, NeWS
, Tcl/tk, ScriptX
, ActiveX
, JavaScript
, OpenLaszlo
, Python
and OLPC, and also proprietary implementations for The Sims
and the Palm Pilot.
Hopkins also wrote demonstrations and programming examples of the ScriptX multimedia scripting language created by the Apple/IBM research spinoff Kaleida Labs
, developed various OpenLaszlo
applications and components, and is a hacker artist known for his artistic cellular automata. He is also known for having written a chapter “The X-Windows Disaster” on X Window System
in the book The UNIX-HATERS Handbook
.
. The current version includes pie menus and is explained in depth in a video released by Hopkins.
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
and programmer
Programmer
A programmer, computer programmer or coder is someone who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software. One who practices or professes a formal approach to...
specializing in human computer interaction and computer graphics
Computer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
.
He inspired Richard Stallman
Richard Stallman
Richard Matthew Stallman , often shortened to rms,"'Richard Stallman' is just my mundane name; you can call me 'rms'"|last= Stallman|first= Richard|date= N.D.|work=Richard Stallman's homepage...
, who described him as a "very imaginative fellow", to use the term copyleft
Copyleft
Copyleft is a play on the word copyright to describe the practice of using copyright law to offer the right to distribute copies and modified versions of a work and requiring that the same rights be preserved in modified versions of the work...
. He coined Deep Crack as the name of the EFF DES cracker
EFF DES cracker
In cryptography, the EFF DES cracker is a machine built by the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1998 to perform a brute force search of DES cipher's key space — that is, to decrypt an encrypted message by trying every possible key...
, and built "AJAXian
Ajax (programming)
Ajax is a group of interrelated web development methods used on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications...
" applications for the NeWS
NeWS
NeWS was a windowing system developed by Sun Microsystems in the mid 1980s. Originally known as "SunDew", its primary authors were James Gosling and David S. H. Rosenthal...
window system 17 years before the term was coined. He ported the SimCity
SimCity
SimCity is a critically acclaimed city-building simulation video game, first released in 1989, and designed by Will Wright. SimCity was Maxis' first product, which has since been ported into various personal computers and game consoles, and spawned several sequels including SimCity 2000 in 1994,...
computer game to several versions of Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
and developed a multi player version of SimCity for X11, did much of the core programming of The Sims
The Sims
The Sims is a strategic life-simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. Its development was led by game designer Will Wright, also known for developing SimCity...
, and developed robot control and personality simulation software for Will Wright's Stupid Fun Club.
He developed and refined pie menus for many platforms and applications including window manager
Window manager
A window manager is system software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. Most window managers are designed to help provide a desktop environment...
s, Emacs
Emacs
Emacs is a class of text editors, usually characterized by their extensibility. GNU Emacs has over 1,000 commands. It also allows the user to combine these commands into macros to automate work.Development began in the mid-1970s and continues actively...
, SimCity
SimCity
SimCity is a critically acclaimed city-building simulation video game, first released in 1989, and designed by Will Wright. SimCity was Maxis' first product, which has since been ported into various personal computers and game consoles, and spawned several sequels including SimCity 2000 in 1994,...
and The Sims
The Sims
The Sims is a strategic life-simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. Its development was led by game designer Will Wright, also known for developing SimCity...
, and published a frequently cited paper about pie menus at CHI'88 with Jack Callahan, Ben Shneiderman
Ben Shneiderman
Ben Shneiderman is an American computer scientist, and professor for Computer Science at the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University of Maryland, College Park...
and Mark Weiser
Mark Weiser
Mark D. Weiser was a chief scientist at Xerox PARC in the United States. Weiser is widely considered to be the father of ubiquitous computing, a term he coined in 1988.-Biography:...
. He has published many free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
and open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
implementations of pie menus for X10
X10
X10 may refer to:* North American X-10, an unmanned technology demonstrator for advanced missile technologies* SL X10, a Swedish suburban train* X10 Wireless Technology, a vendor of home automation products...
, X11, NeWS
NeWS
NeWS was a windowing system developed by Sun Microsystems in the mid 1980s. Originally known as "SunDew", its primary authors were James Gosling and David S. H. Rosenthal...
, Tcl/tk, ScriptX
ScriptX
ScriptX is a multimedia-oriented development environment created in 1990 by Kaleida Labs. Unlike packages such as Macromedia Director, ScriptX is not an authoring tool for creating multimedia titles, although it does come with a built-in authoring tool...
, ActiveX
ActiveX
ActiveX is a framework for defining reusable software components in a programming language-independent way. Software applications can then be composed from one or more of these components in order to provide their functionality....
, JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
, OpenLaszlo
OpenLaszlo
OpenLaszlo is an open source platform for the development and delivery of rich Internet applications. It is released under the Open Source Initiative-certified Common Public License ....
, Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
and OLPC, and also proprietary implementations for The Sims
The Sims
The Sims is a strategic life-simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. Its development was led by game designer Will Wright, also known for developing SimCity...
and the Palm Pilot.
Hopkins also wrote demonstrations and programming examples of the ScriptX multimedia scripting language created by the Apple/IBM research spinoff Kaleida Labs
Kaleida Labs
Kaleida Labs was one of several joint ventures between Apple Computer and IBM in a period of alliance between the two companies during the early 1990s. The two computer giants sought to counter the influence of Microsoft and the growing dominance of its Windows operating system...
, developed various OpenLaszlo
OpenLaszlo
OpenLaszlo is an open source platform for the development and delivery of rich Internet applications. It is released under the Open Source Initiative-certified Common Public License ....
applications and components, and is a hacker artist known for his artistic cellular automata. He is also known for having written a chapter “The X-Windows Disaster” on X Window System
X Window System
The X window system is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a basis for graphical user interfaces and rich input device capability for networked computers...
in the book The UNIX-HATERS Handbook
The UNIX-HATERS Handbook
The UNIX-HATERS Handbook is a semi-humorous edited compilation of messages to the UNIX-HATERS mailing list. The book was edited by Simson Garfinkel, Daniel Weise and Steven Strassmann and published in 1994....
.
Micropolis
Recently Hopkins, supported by John Gilmore, adapted SimCity for the OLPC XO-1 laptopOLPC XO-1
The XO-1, previously known as the $100 Laptop, Children's Machine, and 2B1, is an inexpensive subnotebook computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world, to provide them with access to knowledge, and opportunities to "explore, experiment and express...
. The current version includes pie menus and is explained in depth in a video released by Hopkins.