| Industry | Computer software |
|---|---|
| Founded | Waterloo, Ontario(1981) |
| Headquarters | Waterloo, Ontario |
Key people | Wes Graham,Ian McPhee, Fred Crigger, Jack Schueler |
| Products | Watcom C/C++ compiler,Watcom SQL,VX-REXX |
| Website | www |
Watcom International Corporation was a software company, which was founded in 1981 byWes Graham andIan McPhee. Founding staff (Fred Crigger, Jack Schueler and McPhee) were formerly members of Professor Graham's Computer Systems Group at theUniversity of Waterloo, inWaterloo,Ontario, Canada. Watcom produced a variety of tools, including the well-knownWatcom C/C++ compiler introduced in 1988.[1]
The first company started by Graham and McPhee was Structured Computing Systems, incorporated in 1974. Then the software development company, WATCOM Systems Inc, started in 1981 with three full-time employees, but had been incorporated two years earlier as Waterloo Basic Enterprises Limited. In 1984, the various subsidiary companies of The WATCOM Group software organization—marketing and sales, publications, seminars and systems (software development) -- were all renamed as WATCOM companies for consistent branding. These were later all merged into one full-service software company, WATCOM International Inc.
WaterlooBASIC programming language was one of the earliest Watcom products and predates the existence of the company. During 1978 to 1979 Waterloo BASIC was developed targeting theIBM Series/1. In 1979 the system was ported toVM/CMS running on theIBM 370, 3030, and 4300 computers and an agreement was reached with IBM to market the compiler. Between 1980 and 1983 updated versions were released including ports to theMVS/TSO andVM/CMS. In addition to Waterloo BASIC some of the other early products included WATCOMAPL, WATCOMGKS, WATCOMCOBOL, WATCOMFORTRAN (WATFIV and WATFOR-77), WATCOMPascal and the Waterloo 6809 Assembler. These were the basis and provided with the CommodoreSuperPET[clarification needed].
In the mid 1980s Watcom developed compilers for theUnisys ICON computers running theQNX operating system. The Watcom C/C++ compiler with QNX developed a market for embedded applications.
In 1984,Maple 3.2 was ported to IBMVM/CMS.
In 1988, Watcom released their first C compiler for the IBM PC platform (and compatibles). It was released with a version number of 6 at a time when the latest version numbers of Borland's and Microsoft's C Compilers were version 5. These version numbers signified nothing and were used for marketing purposes. The compiler could create tighter and faster code than its competition.[2]
In 1992, Watcom began a move into the client-server arena with the introduction ofWatcom SQL, aSQL database server product. Being a very small company (about 8 developers) they managed to produce high quality software, famous among software developers. Watcom SQL is still in production, now under the nameSAP SQL Anywhere.
In 1993, theVX-REXX system was released.
Watcom was acquired byPowersoft in 1994, and Powersoft merged withSybase in 1995.[3] In May 2000, Sybase spun off their mobile and embedded computing division into its own company,Sybase iAnywhere (formerly iAnywhere Solutions Inc.). Sybase tried to re-target the Watcom compiler into a visualRAD tool,Optima++, but in 2003, because the product competed directly with the Sybase offeringPowerBuilder, the product was discontinued. Its sister product, Optima-J, was continued. In 2003, the Watcom C/C++ and Fortran compilers were released as anopen source project under a new name,Open Watcom.
Doom,Descent,Magic Carpet,Grand Theft Auto,System Shock,Fast Attack,Atomic Bomberman,Duke Nukem 3D andFallout are among well known games that were compiled with Watcom C andDOS/4GW.[4] As well asCommand & Conquer Red Alert.[5]
Novell'sNetware386[6] andFox Software'sFoxPro 2 were compiled with Watcom C/C++.