Colin's Previous Composition Systems Experience

Programming Manager (Composition Systems), Miles 33 Plc

June 1993 - September 1994

As Programming Manager of the Composition Systems division I was directly responsible for the day to day running of the Composition Systems programming department. My duties included hiring of new programmers and the assessment of the programming staff for their pay reviews. All development projects were scheduled, reviewed and supervised by myself in addition to scheduling all maintenance tasks and prioritising all reported bugs. I am also closely involved in the co-ordination of the programming team with the Sales, Customer Support and QA departments.

The OASYS product range was my responsibility. Any bespoke software required by customers required my approval before any agreement was reached. Projects under my supervision included SGML conversion to OASYS coding, the provision of software for IPEX (International Printing Exhibition), and the successful completion of the latest major software revision.

I was frequently involved in sales situations, giving advice on software and product integration. I was also called upon to discuss technology issues such as PostScript, Acrobat, SGML and desktop colour. In May of this year I travelled to the U.S. where I presented a seminar on the problems of SGML translation to a specially convened meeting of our U.S. OASYS user group. I had to talk knowledgeably about SGML in front of seventy people with almost no preparation. I helped staff and organise our stand at IPEX where Miles 33 products were demonstrated and met with both existing and potential customers. In November I had a short article published in "Printing World" magazine which was the fruition of a long standing communication between Miles 33 and Aldus (now Adobe), nurtured by myself.

Senior Programmer

October 91 - June 1993

As senior programmer, I had to drive various developments. These included the expansion of the interactive page make-up product, the provision of a WordPerfect input filter and various other developments.

The largest project I controlled was the addition of colour to the OASYS system. This would involve everything from using colour to make the product easier to use, to outputting colour text, effects and images. The colour output could be automatically split into the required colour separations. I specified and designed the colour project and lead a team of three programmers.

In order to understand the professional approach to the use of colour in the printing industry I spent a week at a reprographic house learning the techniques used (both manual and computerised). This provided very valuable experience, which allowed me to specify a colour system, which would mirror existing production techniques.

I also had to ensure that the PostScript colour output from our system was compatible with third party Pre-Press programs leading me to become closely involved with companies such as Aldus.

Programmer/Analyst

October 89 - October 1991

At this time I successfully developed a PostScript output driver for Through time the complexity of the driver was increased to include effects and graphics. The output also had to be standardised in order for us to be able to produce EPS files capable of being imported into other applications. This became a successful part of the OASYS product that required ongoing maintenance. I also worked to increase the efficiency of the PostScript end of the driver and became more involved in the general development and maintenance of the OASYS product range, including such areas as WYSIWYG, interactive page make-up, graphics handling and Hyphenation and Justification. All code was produced in 'C', 'BCPL' and PostScript.

Through my involvement in PostScript and graphics, I became familiar with various graphic design, DTP and Pre-Press products on the Macintosh and PC.

Junior Programmer

April 88 - October 1989

My duties when I first arrived at Miles 33 included the development of standalone utility programs used in a housekeeping role for the main system. I also ported programs from the Data General MV to Sun workstations and developed conversion programs to translate text from databases and a variety of other formats into the Miles 33 internal format. These programs were developed in 'C' and 'BCPL'.

Later, I started to develop and maintain the main product OASYS.