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Gordon Eubanks

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Gordon Eubanks
Born (1946-11-07) November 7, 1946 (age 78)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materOklahoma State University
OccupationComputer programmer
Known forBASIC-E, CBASIC
SpouseRonda Eubanks
ChildrenKeith Eubanks

Gordon Edwin Eubanks, Jr.[1][2] (born November 7, 1946) is an American microcomputer industry pioneer who worked with Gary Kildall in the early days of Digital Research (DRI).

Eubanks attended Oklahoma State University, where he was involved as a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. Kildall was his graduate thesis advisor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.[1][3][4] Eubank's 1976 master's thesis was a BASIC language compiler called BASIC-E designed for Kildall's new CP/M operating system.[1][3][4] Over the next year and a half, Eubanks wrote the popular CBASIC compiler for IMSAI while he was still a naval officer.[4][3] Friends of Eubanks say he called it "CBASIC" because he wrote it while serving on a submarine (at sea). Other people say the name CBASIC referred to "commercial" basic,[4][3] because it incorporated BCD mathematics which eliminated MBASIC's rounding errors that were sometimes troublesome for accounting.

In 1981, after Microsoft moved from programming languages into operating systems, Digital Research improved its position in programming languages by acquiring Eubanks's company, Compiler Systems.[2][4][3] Eubanks went to work at DRI, but he soon came to doubt the company's long-term prospects. In 1984, Eubanks joined Symantec and from 1984 to 1986 he helped develop Q & A, an integrated database and wordprocessor with natural language query. He went on to become president and CEO of Symantec, guiding it into the software utility and anti-virus business.

He left in 1999 to become president and CEO of Oblix, a Silicon Valley company producing software for web security. Oblix was acquired by Oracle in March 2005. Eubanks is a director of Concur and joined the board of directors of Oakley Networks in February 2006.

Eubanks is a stamp collector. A specialist of the first stamps issued nationally in the United States between 1847 and 1861. For two collections he exhibited, he won the American Philatelic Society's title of "champion of champions" in 2012 and 2014.[5]

Eubanks is married to Ronda Eubanks, and has a son, Keith, as of January 1995.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Eubanks, Jr., Gordon Edwin (December 1976). A Microprocessor Implementation of Extended Basic (PDF) (Master thesis). Monterey, California, USA: Naval Postgraduate School. hdl:10945/17862. Retrieved 2021-12-11. (194 pages)
  2. ^ a b "Compiler Systems Acquired; Language Division Formed Under Gordon Eubanks, Jr. - Digital Research Acquires Compiler Systems; Will Now Provide the Microcomputer Industry with One-stop Shopping for Total Systems Support" (PDF). Digital Research News - for Digital Research Users Everywhere. 1 (1). Pacific Grove, California, USA: Digital Research, Inc.: 1, 7. November 1981. Fourth Quarter. Retrieved 2020-01-18.
  3. ^ a b c d e Kildall, Gary Arlen (2016-08-02) [1993]. Kildall, Scott; Kildall, Kristin (eds.). "Computer Connections: People, Places, and Events in the Evolution of the Personal Computer Industry" (Manuscript, part 1). Kildall Family. Archived from the original on 2016-11-17. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
  4. ^ a b c d e Shustek, Len (2016-08-02). "In His Own Words: Gary Kildall". Remarkable People. Computer History Museum. Archived from the original on 2016-12-17. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
  5. ^ "Champion of champions", American Philatelic Society; retrieved 16 April 2016.

Further reading

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