Eric Schiller's Computer Background

Last updated August 16, 2003

I started working with computers back in 1972, when my high school obtained a minicomputer complete with paper tape storage. Over the years I have taught myself languages and operating systems as needed. In 1983 I founded Chessworks Unlimited, which produced fonts and other software for use in the chess world. A year later I added Linguistics Unlimited to produce fonts and software for linguistics. In 1992 I directed most of my energies to an information-retrieval project at the University of Chicago, and eventually took a vacation from academia in 1993 to become a full-time software designer.

I have participated on the Internet since 1991. In 1999 I became Editor-in-Chief for the new internet publication Chess City Magazine and am now offering online chess lessons 

Chessworks Unlimited Products in distribution

Dr. Schiller's How to Play Chess and Chess Game

Tilburg Laserfonts

Assorted chess products

Products in which Chessworks has had significant consulting role

• Avery Cardoza's Chess Game (in developement, 2000)
• Chessmaster 5000 (Mindscape, March 1996)
• Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess (Davidson 1996)
• Kasparov's Gambit (Electronic Arts, 1993)

• Saitek Digital Game Timer (1996, 2000)
• Deja Vu Chess Library (1994)

Hardware

• Pentium III 933, 256 Meg Ram running Win2000
• ARM laptop, Pentium III 700 running Win98

Operating Systems

• Win2000
• Win98

Commonly used Software

I use a lot of Microsoft products, not because I want to, but because my collaborators do.

• Microsoft Office 2000 (Service Release 1)

• PageMaker 6.5
• Adobe Photoshop 6, Imageready 3, Acrobat 5
• WinPerl
• Robohelp
• Nero CD-burner
• A variety of XML tools

Languages

I prefer to work in RAD environments including Visual Basic. Much of my more recent work is in XML. So far I have developed two XML projects: Caxton XML for chess and ALEXML for linguistics.

I have some background in Perl, Java, Javascript, C and C++, but have not used those languages for any major programs. I try to keep these skills up-to-date so that I can understand the implications for software design, not implementation.

Links

Directory of Computer Consultants and Developers - a place for consultants and developers to network, collaborate, and mingle. Includes a searchable job database, online bookstore, and discussion areas for over 150 technical skills.