David A. Thomas (software developer): Difference between revisions

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{{short description|Canadian software developer researcher and entrepreneur}}

{{dablink|This page is about David A. Thomas, founder of [[IBM OTI Labs]], and not about [[Dave Thomas (programmer)|Dave Thomas]] of ''[[The Pragmatic Programmers]]''. For other people named Dave or David Thomas, see [[David Thomas]].}}

{{Distinguish|Dave Thomas (programmer)}}

{{Third-party|date=January 2020}}

{{Infobox person

'''David A. Thomas''' is a well-known figure in modern software development and object technology. Thomas took undergraduate (1969) and graduate (1976) degrees at the [[Carleton University]], [[Ottawa, Ontario]], [[Canada]], and held a number of software development positions in the ensuing years. Thomas is perhaps best known as the founder and past CEO of Object Technology International, Inc., now IBM OTI Labs. OTI was responsible for initial development of the [[Eclipse (computing)|Eclipse]] [[open source]] [[Integrated Development Environment|IDE]] and the [[VisualAge|Visual Age Java]] development environment.

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| nationality = Canadian

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| occupation = Software developer, academic, CEO, investor, conference organizer

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| education = Bachelor of Electrical Engineering – Carleton University (1969), Master of Systems and Computer Engineering – Carleton University, (1976)

| alma_mater = [[Carleton University]]

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'''David A. Thomas,''' sometimes known as '''"Big" Dave Thomas''' is a software developer, researcher and entrepreneur. He was founder and CEO of [[Object Technology International]], which created the products that became [[IBM VisualAge]] and eventually [[Eclipse (software)|Eclipse]].

Thomas is a frequent speaker at development conferences on topics dealing with technology and technology management. As an author and through publication of a number of papers in peer-reviewed journals, Thomas has demonstrated substantial contributions to both the commercial and academic aspects of software development. In [[2006]] he was recognized as a Distinguished Engineer by the [[Association for Computing Machinery]].

He has taught and researched at universities in Canada and Australia, and advises R&D teams in [[big data]] and fast data, [[agile software development]], and [[object technology]]. Thomas was the CEO and Chairman of YOW! conferences and workshops until the business was acquired by Skills Matter in 2020.

== Career ==

=== Carleton University ===

David A. Thomas completed a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at [[Carleton University]] in [[Ottawa]], Canada in 1969, and a Master of Systems and Computer Engineering there in 1976.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.davethomas.net/DaveThomasCV.pdf |title=Microsoft Word - DaveThomasCV.doc |date= |accessdate=2020-01-30}}</ref> From 1969, he has had a long history of involvement with computing services and research at Carleton, and was appointed an assistant professor and then a professor in 1990. To this day, Thomas is an adjunct professor at Carleton.

In 1984, Thomas started and led the Object Oriented Research Group at Carleton with colleagues Wilf LaLonde and John Pugh.<ref>{{cite book |title=Mastering ENVY/Developer |isbn= 9780521666503|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ld6E19QIMo4C&pg=PR15|last1= Pelrine|first1= Joseph|last2= Knight|first2= Alan|last3= Cho|first3= Adrian|date= 19 March 2001}}</ref><ref name="travels">{{cite web |title=Travels With Smalltalk |url=http://www.mojowire.com/TravelsWithSmalltalk/DaveThomas-TravelsWithSmalltalk.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20010614144426/http://www.mojowire.com/TravelsWithSmalltalk/DaveThomas-TravelsWithSmalltalk.htm|archivedate=2001-06-14}}</ref> The group created a range of tools for development in the [[Smalltalk]] language including ENVY/Smalltalk (an [[Integrated Development Environment|IDE]]), ENVY/Developer (a team programming and configuration management tool for Smalltalk) and Orwell (a [[revision control system]]).

=== Object Technology International ===

In 1988, Thomas founded the company Object Technology International, based in Ottawa, to commercialize the products. He was CEO of the company until its eventual acquisition. An early project was an embedded Smalltalk for [[Tektronix]] [[oscilloscope]]s, developed jointly with Tektronix, Digitalk, and the Canadian [[Department of National Defence (Canada)|Department of National Defense]].<ref name="travels" /> OTI were engaged to help create [[IBM]]'s [[VisualAge]] Smalltalk. In 1996 OTI was acquired by IBM, and the VisualAge range became IBM products. VisualAge Java was the basis for the first release of the [[open source]] [[Eclipse IDE]].

Thomas left IBM in 1998. He spent several years in academia at Carleton, and the Australian universities [[University of Queensland]] and [[Queensland University of Technology]].

=== Agile, Big Data, Fast Data ===

Thomas has guided several startups in Big Data and Fast Data, including [https://kx.com kx]. His own R&D operation in Ottawa, Bedarra Labs, is now the R&D arm of First Derivatives plc, kx's parent company.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bedarra.com/company_release.html |title=Bedarra Research Labs Company Overview |publisher=Bedarra.com |date= |accessdate=2020-01-30 |archive-date=2017-05-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510230634/http://www.bedarra.com/company_release.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== YOW conferences ===

Thomas was part of the organizing committees for [[OOPSLA]], [[ECOOP]], and the Danish Java and Object Oriented (JAOO) conferences for many years.

In 2008, he brought a conference much like JAOO to Australia. English speakers tended to spell out the acronym, while Danes and Germans pronounced the name "Yow". As the conference became less Java-oriented, the decision was made to remove all doubt and call it simply YOW. In Europe, JAOO was renamed GOTO conference in 2011.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://gotocon.com/aboutjaoo/ |website=GOTO conference |title=About GOTO |access-date=2020-06-10}}</ref>

There are now Yow conferences and other events every year in several Australian and Asian cities. The business was sold to Skills Matter in 2020, and then in 2022 YOW was acquired by Trifork, the organiser of the GOTO conferences in Europe.<ref>{{cite web |title=Trifork takes over YOW brand |url=https://trifork.com/2022/09/trifork-takes-over-yow-brand/ |website=trifork.com |publisher=Trifork |access-date=2024-01-29}}</ref>

== Awards ==

Thomas was awarded the title of Distinguished Engineer by the [[Association for Computing Machinery]] (ACM) in 2008.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://awards.acm.org/distinguished-members/award-winners?year=2006&award=157&region=North+America |title=Recipients |publisher=Awards.acm.org |date= |accessdate=2020-01-30}}</ref>

== Publications ==

''Smalltalk With Style''

Klimas, Edward J., Thomas, David A. and Skublics, Suzanne,

Prentice Hall, NJ 1996 {{ISBN|9780131655492}}

== References ==

<references />

== External links ==

*[https://kx.com/ kx Systems]

*[https://www.firstderivatives.com/fd-labs/ FD Labs]

*[https://yowconference.com/ Yow Conferences]

==External links==

* [http://www.davethomas.net Curriculum vitae]

* [http://www.bedarra.com Bedarra Research Labs]

* [http://se-radio.net/podcast/2008-02/episode-86-interview-dave-thomas Podcast Interview with Dave Thomas] on Software Engineering Radio

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[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]

[[Category:Canadian computer scientists]]

[[Category:Living people]]

[[Category:Canadian computersoftware scientistsengineers]]