Steve Robinson - Biography

Writing one's own biography can be rather difficult. On the one hand, it might be considered appropriate to be modest. However, since you are probably here because you are considering a Natural Seminar, or a subscription to Inside Natural, or the acquisition of Simply Natural, it is appropriate to provide as outstanding a biography as modesty will permit. So, in a less than formal style, a brief biography, with only a modicum of modesty:

All biographies start off with education:

BS, MS Mathematics - Polytechnic Institute of New York
PhD (sans dissertation) Operations Research - University of Pennsylvania
Actually, I did write my dissertation. There were, however, two members of my dissertation committee with whom I did not get along very well. Their suggested revisions would have taken over a year. At the time I had already started S.L. ROBINSON & ASSOCIATES and was rather busy traveling across the country teaching Adabas, Adamint, and Natural. I opted to take the knowledge I had gained as "payment" for my labors, and not accumulate another dust collecting diploma.

Job histories are usually long drawn out lists of often irrelevant assignments. The relevant part of my job history really starts with PDC.

Performance Development Corporation.

Co-authored the first comparison of database packages ( A Critical and Comparitive Analysis of Data Base Packages )
Wrote the first data base column ( The Data Base Corner, in Computerworld ).
Conducted the first Adabas seminars not conducted by Software Ag.
Lectured nationally with American Management Association (AMA) and American Management Resource (AMR) and internationally with Infotech.

S.L.ROBINSON & ASSOCIATES, Inc.

Conducted the first Natural seminars not conducted by Software Ag.
Wrote the first Natural textbook ( Natural - The Programming Language).
Wrote the sequel to the first textbook (Natural 2 - The Update).
Publishes the only newsletter devoted to Natural (Inside Natural).
Co-developer of Talk-To-Me, an end-user query facility written entirely in Natural version 2.
Developed "The Natural Library" (three libraries of Natural programs for educational and reference usage).
Developed "Simply Natural"; a replacement for Natural's Help Facility.
Frequent guest lecturer at regional and National Software AG User conferences.
Member, Software AG Cooperative Consultant Program.
Software AG Technology Partner
Moderator, Software AG Developers' Forum

After many years in the industry, "wearing many hats", I still characterize myself as a programmer, a title I do not take lightly. In addition to working with Adabas and Natural on the mainframe, I increasingly spend more and more time working with Natural on the PC.

When I am not programming, I write about programming, teach programming, and try to keep current across a broad spectrum of programming languages and platforms.