Geoff Perlman: Difference between revisions

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'''Geoff Perlman''' (born January 6, 1964) is an American Entrepreneur and author whose vision for cross-platform [[development tools]] has growing impact for developing applications on different operating systems. His interest in cross-platform compatibility surfaced at an early age during exposure to [[technology]] at the local university. Carrying this passion with him throughout his life he has founded companies to allow ordinary people to create extraordinary things with computer software. Perlman has worked for a number of technology companies in his career, including [[AT&T]] and [[4D]], and he founded development tools company, [[Real Software]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.linkedin.com/pub/geoff-perlman/0/a38/406 |title=Geoff Perlman Linkedin Page |date=October 12, 2010 |last=Perlman |first=Geoff |accessdate=2010-10-12 |publisher=[[LinkedIn]]}}</ref>, in 1996.

==Early life and education==

Perlman was born to a large, native-southern Californian family on January 6, 1964. The son of an electrical engineer who designed communications equipment for military purposes and a social worker, Perlman attended [[University High School]] in [[Irvine, California]]. Perlman first became interested in programming at age 10 while watching [[Star Trek]] and learning about the technology of the future. To feed this interest Perlman spent time at the [[University of California at Irvine]] computer science lab learning about [[mainframe computers]]. A few years later Perlman’s father brought home a [[Texas Instruments]] portable terminal that allowed him to further develop his [[programming]] skills.

==Early career ==

In 1984, Perlman took a job as a [[customer service]]/billing technician at [[AT&T]] in an office that housed approximately 300 employees. The office phone system reported the number of calls each employee would take per hour and staff managers reviewed this information on a weekly basis and compared it to employee’s seniority to determine when lunches and breaks would be allotted. Geoff went to his manager and suggested he could write a program to automate this process; something that took each manager a full day per week to do -- hisdo—his program would reduce the task to 15 minutes. He was given an office and a computer to build this application.

==Career==

While Perlman has spent most of his career working for companies he founded, he worked in [[Silicon Valley]] for [[4D]] (then ACIUS) from 1990 to 1994. He was hired to conduct training classes across the US teaching users how to develop database applications using 4D and its [[programming language]]. Initially he was the only trainer the company employed.<ref>{{cite web|title=4D Training|url=http://www.4d.com/support/training.html|work=4D Training|publisher=4D}}</ref> . He quickly grew the department, hiring 3 additional trainers and quadrupled the training revenue.

==Founding Real Software==

Perlman founded development tools company, Real Software ,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.20/20.06/GeoffPerlman/index.html/page=0,0 |title=REALbasic Best Practices: An Interview with Geoff Perlman |dateyear=2004 |last=Howe |first=Guyren G |publisher=[[MacTech]]}}</ref>, in 1996. At the time there was nothing like Visual Basic for the Mac.<ref>{{cite web|title=Real Software Press Release|url=http://www.realsoftware.com/company/news/archive/Rb1ships/|work=REAL Software Ships REALbasic 1.0|publisher=Real Software|accessdate=20 December 2011}}</ref>. Realbasic (now [[Real Studio]]<ref>{{cite web|title=REAL Software Ships REAL Studio 2010 Release 1; Announces New Product Name, Adds Improved ActiveX Support|url=http://www.realsoftware.com/company/news/2010/2010r1|work=Real Software Announces New Product Name|publisher=Real Software|accessdate=20 December 2011}}</ref>), Real Software’s flagship product, was meant to offer the flexibility of Visual Basic to Mac users while offering them an integrated drag and drop user interface builder. It was clear to Perlman that cross-platform development was the way of the future with the increasing marketshare of Mac and Linux .<ref>{{cite web|title=Real Studio for Commercial Programmers|url=http://www.realsoftware.com/realstudio/commercialdevelopers.php|work=Real Studio for Commercial Programmers|publisher=Real Software|accessdate=20 December 2011}}</ref>. Realbasic quickly released the option to cross-compile applications for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux, making it the only true cross-platform development tool on the market at the time.

Perlman continues to serve as the CEO of Real Software where they recently released Real Studio Web Edition,<ref>{{cite web|title=REAL Software Announces REAL Studio Web Edition; Revolutionizes How Web Applications are Developed|url=http://www.realsoftware.com/company/news/2010/web.php|work=Real Studio Web Edition Announced|publisher=Real Software}}</ref> , which is one way to develop powerful, modern web<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.itworld.com/software/175433/3-tools-accelerate-web-application-development?page=0,0 |title=3 Tools to Accelerate Web Development |date=June 2011 |last=Ohlhorst |first=Frank|accessdate=2011-06-17 |publisher=[[IDG]] }}</ref> applications without the need to learn multiple programming languages. Web Apps written with Real Studio Web Edition are also running in modern Browsers of Mobile Operating Systems like iOS and Android .<ref>{{cite web|title=Real Studio on iOS|url=http://www.realsoftware.com/web/sneak_peek/ios.php|work=Real Studio on iOS|publisher=Real Software|accessdate=20 December 2011}}</ref> .

==Publications==

Perlman is the Author of Inside 4th Dimension ,<ref>{{cite web

|url=http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/books?irn=211842 |title=Inside 4th Dimension |dateyear=1993 |last=Perlman |first=Geoff |accessdate=2010-10-15 |publisher=Sybex}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.16/16.04/4thDimension/index.html |title=Looking into the 4th Dimension |date=February 2000 |last=Porter |first=William |accessdate=2010-10-12 |publisher=[[MacTech]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web

|url=http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.164.4763 |title=Database structures for mathematical programming models. Decision Support Systems |dateyear=1997 |last=Fourer |first=Robert |accessdate=2010-10-15 |publisher=Unknown }}</ref>, which was published by SYBEX in 1993. This book describes the basics of database management including creating files, new features that were included in the old 4th Dimension product, and building an introductory database for custom applications.

Throughout the years Perlman has been writing articles about development tools published in [[Dr. Dobb's Journal]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://drdobbs.com/web-development/231903175 |title=HTML5: Where Are All the Apps |dateyear=2011 |last=Perlman |first=Geoff |publisher=[[Dr. Dobb's Journal]]}}</ref>, [[VentureBeat]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://venturebeat.com/2011/08/04/luck-and-4-other-keys-for-surviving-the-startup-phase/ |title=Luck and 4 Other Keys to Surviving the Startup Phase |date=August 2011 |last=Perlman |first=Geoff |accessdate=2011-08-04 |publisher=[[VentureBeat]]}}</ref> and SD Times.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sdtimes.com/ARE_YOUR_WEB_APPS_SAFE_/By_GEOFF_PERLMAN/About_SECURITY/35599 |title=Are Your Web Apps Safe? |date=June 2011 |last=Perlman |first=Geoff |accessdate=2011-06-01 |publisher=BZ Media LLC}}</ref>.

==Personal Lifelife==

Perlman currently resides in [[Austin, TX]] with his wife and two children.