Bellevue, WA—September 17, 2002---Dr. Charles Simonyi, Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft and Professor Gregor Kiczales of the University of British Columbia today announced the formation of Intentional Software Corporation (ISC), a new company that will develop technology to greatly improve software development productivity by capturing the design intent clearly in the code. In addition, a licensing agreement with Microsoft has been signed that – in essence – gives Microsoft a “first right of negotiation” for developments in the critical early years.
Simonyi has worked at Microsoft for more than 20 years where he spearheaded important groundbreaking software development projects including Microsoft Word and many other Microsoft applications. Kiczales has led development at the Palo Alto Research Center of aspect-oriented programming and AspectJ, an important new software development technology. “For the past several years at Microsoft I have been pursuing the dream of intentional technology,” said Simonyi. “I am excited to be continuing that work in the focused environment of our new company and with Microsoft’s blessing, which is very important to me.” “I’m very excited about the work that Charles is pursuing and very pleased that we will continue to have an ongoing relationship,” said Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect. “Charles has made many significant contributions to Microsoft over the years, and this latest work has enormous potential to dramatically enhance programming in a number of areas.” Kiczales notes, “There is tremendous synergy between intentional programming and aspect-oriented technology. Working together, Intentional Software Corporation will be able to give developers some exciting, and very useful tools. Our AspectJ users are already asking for tools like these.” Gates and Simonyi said that the new corporation would enable Simonyi to assemble a unique team of academic and commercial talent, and provide both the incentive and the market discipline necessary to pursue the uncertain, but potentially revolutionary vision of intentional programming. The agreement ensures that Simonyi will continue to be an important part of the “Microsoft family” and provides licenses to relevant Microsoft intellectual property so that Simonyi and his team can continue to develop this technology.
Intentional Software Corporation is dedicated to building software programming tools and technologies that enable programmers to capture design intent explicitly in the code. The new tools will help bridge the gap between the needs of the program’s stakeholders: the programmers, designers, creative artists, domain experts, lawyers, and others. These tools will also improve the value of the software by increasing its quality and making it less expensive to maintain. The tools developed by Intentional Software Corporation will be based in part on recent innovations in aspect-oriented programming, generative or transformational programming, and intentional programming.
Intentional Software tools will be of value in nearly all kinds of software development. Some examples where the use of intentional software will greatly simplify incremental product enhancements include creation of complex websites, user interfaces for common consumer electronics products such as cell phones and printers, embedded systems and user interfaces for automotive and avionics applications, and many more.
About Microsoft Corporation
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software – any time, any place and on any device.
