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Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
Posted by Michael on 24 October 2005, 14:23 GMT

Since ticalc.org's tenth anniversary is rapidly approaching next year, I thought it would be an interesting idea to have a series of interviews with famous TI community programmers of the years past. Tracking them down was easier said than done. Therefore, while I originally intended to have a mini-series of interviews from now until June 2006, it will be a few sporadic articles. And now without further ado, continue reading more to learn what happened to Joe Wingbermuehle, our first interviewee.

While Joe Wingbermuehle has written many popular 83/83+ games, he is best known as the creator of Ion, the defacto shell for the 83+. Recently I interviewed Joe and asked him a few questions about what he's up to nowadays and what he thinks about the TI community.

Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
MichaelHow old are you currently and what education have you had?
JoeI'm 24 years old. I've been out of school for a year and a half now. I went to UMR (University of Missouri at Rolla) and got a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics.
MichaelHave you done any programming since you left the TI community?
JoeWell, I've done a lot of programming since I quit doing calculator stuff. Of course, that's what I do for a living these days. I also have several projects I work on, notably JWM.
MichaelCan you explain what JWM is?
JoeJWM (Joe's Window Manager) is a window manager for the X Window System often found on UNIX systems including Linux. It provides the stuff needed to arrange windows and start new programs graphically.
MichaelThat's an interesting project. What motivated you to create a window manager when there are already so many in existance?
JoeI guess there are some similarities between what I did with Ion for the TI-83/83+ and a window manager, but really, I just started writing it because I wanted to play around with X11. Of course, I also wanted to have a window manager that worked exactly like I wanted it to work. Eventually JWM just got to the point where I could use it on a regular basis so I just continued development and now it's becoming a pretty mature window manager.
MichaelBesides JWM, what else have you been up to? Any hobbies/travelling?
JoeWell, besides programming stuff, I really haven't done anything terribly exciting lately. As a hobby, I guess you could say I like playing piano, but that's about it.
MichaelAll right. What do you think of the current TI community as compared to when you were active? Has it changed and if so, for the better or for the worse?
JoeI'm not really that familiar with what's happening now. I do keep an eye on it, but certainly not as much as I used to. From what I can tell, though, it seems to be growing. I still see some familiar names from when I was active and, of course, many new ones. Lots of new things since I've been active, which is a good thing I guess. New people, new games, and even new calculators.
MichaelSome people claim the community is dying and the quality of new programs has gone downhill. Would you then disagree with that statement?
JoeThat's hard for me to really answer as I haven't actually tried out most of the new things, but I doubt it's really dying. Good programs take time to make and will always be more sparse than the stuff that people write in a day during some free time. I'm sure there will always be new people to pick up the task of writing great stuff for the calculators.
MichaelOkay, it's nostalgia time. What are the best and worst things you remember about the community? Are there any particular events you'd like to talk about?
JoeCertainly, I think the most exciting time was when I first got my hands on a TI-83+ and had the opportunity to explore uncharted territory and make Ion in the process. Of course, I had a lot of help with that. I also remember back when I made SOS and Bill Nagel didn't seem pleased about that. This was only shortly after AShell had been released, there were some interesting IRC conversations if I recall correctly.
MichaelDo you have any advice for programmers who are just getting started?
JoeNow that's a complicated question. I guess there are several schools of thought, but I've always found the best way to get started programming is to make something that will give you feedback as soon as possible. So if your goal is to make a breakout game, start with just a ball bouncing up and down and keep adding to it. Small steps make the process more entertaining. As to where to go to find out how to program, I'd just find a book on it. Of course, you'll want to know assembler language if you want to program calculators, but z80 or 68k isn't too difficult to pick up after learning C, so I'd start there.
MichaelLastly, is there anything else that you would like to add to this interview? Feel free to plug a program, deliver a calculator version of the Gettysburg Address, etc.
JoeWell, I don't have much to plug, of course, if you want to keep up to date on what I'm doing, visit joewing.net and be sure to give JWM a shot. As a last word on calculators, I really enjoyed being involved with doing calculator stuff. It gave me the chance to learn how to program in assembler language in a free environment that you just don't get with modern computer systems.
JoeThanks for interviewing me! It makes me feel important :-)
MichaelAnd thank you!
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The comments below are written by ticalc.org visitors. Their views are not necessarily those of ticalc.org, and ticalc.org takes no responsibility for their content.


Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
Kevin Ouellet  Account Info
(Web Page)

nice interview I cant wait to see who will be interviewed next

Reply to this comment    24 October 2005, 14:56 GMT

Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
KermMartian Account Info
(Web Page)

*gasp* The real Joe W! OMG!

Reply to this comment    24 October 2005, 17:58 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
Derrick F.  Account Info

*whistles* Tenth anniversary. Congrats.

Reply to this comment    24 October 2005, 19:01 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
KermMartian Account Info
(Web Page)

The only time I had occassion to chat with him is when I was asking about using Ion libs.

Reply to this comment    24 October 2005, 20:49 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
srunni Account Info
(Web Page)

OMG!!!! It's THE Joe Wingbermuehle!!!!! I don't really like Ion, use MirageOS instead, but some of his games are really nice :-)

Reply to this comment    26 October 2005, 22:33 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
burntfuse  Account Info
(Web Page)

I use MirageOS too, but Ion's the one that started it. No Ion, probably no MirageOS.

Reply to this comment    27 October 2005, 18:21 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
srunni Account Info
(Web Page)

Well, I prefer MirageOS, mainly because it's an application, so if my calculator crashes, I will still have it. I remember trying to use Ion; it worked but wasn't easy. MirageOS also has the options to turn on lowercase, change names of programs on the calculator, and block the memory menu (very useful when playing games at the school and the teacher catches you! :-). But you say that MirageOS is based on Ion? I never thought about that; the two don't seem at all alike. Also, since I got my TI-89 Titanium over a year ago, I haven't really used my TI-83 Plus Silver Edition; the TI-89 Titanium is much better - to play games that require a kernel, all you have to do is run a program from the Var-Link menu, and it integrates the kernel into the OS, so you can play games that have to go through a kernel without having to go through another program. I use PreOS, and it works just fine.

Reply to this comment    27 October 2005, 20:54 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
Joey Adams  Account Info

Someone said they liked MirageOS better than ION, etc... Isn't MirageOS actually based on the ION system? Well anyway, good job.

Reply to this comment    30 October 2005, 02:45 GMT

Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
Sebastian Schmied Account Info

I vote for Patrick Davidson to be the next one.

Reply to this comment    24 October 2005, 19:12 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
Snave2000  Account Info

I second that!

Reply to this comment    25 October 2005, 15:10 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
Snave2000  Account Info

Yeah, Phoenix rules!

Reply to this comment    25 October 2005, 15:11 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
Andy Janata  Account Info
(Web Page)

Indeed, and he's not hard to find either! He still idles on IRC quite often.

Reply to this comment    25 October 2005, 15:19 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
Kevin Kofler Account Info
(Web Page)

Indeed. You can find him on most calculator-related IRC chans, e.g. #tigcc at irc.worldnet.net (UTF-8 charset please).

Reply to this comment    25 October 2005, 18:15 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
srunni Account Info
(Web Page)

I didn't know that they had IRC for calculators. I'll have to check out irc.worldnet.net some time - it sounds pretty cool.

Reply to this comment    29 October 2005, 20:38 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
Kevin Ouellet  Account Info
(Web Page)

cool thing is that he still program for calcs a bit. I think he might end up staying in the community for almost as long as Fryedsoft (around since 1992-93) and Hiryu (1995)
http://fryedsoft.calc.org
http://hiryu.calc.org

Reply to this comment    26 October 2005, 14:04 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
Ed Fry  Account Info
(Web Page)

well I haven't been in the community that long, I started programming on my Ti-81 in 93-94 and got online around 96 and posted in bit.listserv.calc.ti for awile. HIryu got on around the same time.

Still it's pretty long considering the average programmer span around here.

Reply to this comment    27 October 2005, 01:33 GMT

Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
Paul Bellar  Account Info
(Web Page)

I talked to Mikey today and he said he'd talk to his dad. For those of you who don't know, Mikey's Dad is Pat Milheron.

Reply to this comment    25 October 2005, 00:39 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
jesse frey  Account Info

who is Pat Milheron

Reply to this comment    26 October 2005, 02:00 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
Rob van Wijk  Account Info

The lead programmer for the OS of the TI83 (and the author of ZASMLOAD for the TI83).

Reply to this comment    4 November 2005, 15:31 GMT

Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
slimey_limey  Account Info
(Web Page)

Ooo! Me!!! Pick me!!!

Sorry. I had to do it.

<plug type="shameless">I'm working on a calendaring (appointments tracker) program for Linux, with automatic reminders.</plug>

Reply to this comment    25 October 2005, 01:14 GMT

Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
Michael McElroy Account Info
(Web Page)

ME.

Reply to this comment    25 October 2005, 14:34 GMT


Re: Re: Interview with Joe Wingbermuehle
Scooblescott  Account Info

I'm looking forward to one with Patrick Davidson. (I don't think there already was) In case youe didn't know, he made pheonix, the most popular calculator game there ever was.

Reply to this comment    12 March 2006, 17:47 GMT

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