H. C. (Clint) Pulley
Developer of c99 for the TI99/4A and Geneve Computers
Clint Pulley is another gifted systems programmer from Canada who decided to apply his skills to our favorite TI-99/4A Home Computer. Prior to 1985 the TI-99/4A did not support the C programming language that was commonplace with many other machines of the time. Clint decided to fill this void and in September 1985 he released his first version of a C compiler for the TI-99/4A that he named c99. This c99 compiler was based on a small-c subset of the C programming language described by Ron Cain in the Dr. Dobb’s Journal published in May 1980 and produces TI assembler source code as its output. Clint continued to improve and added to his original c99 compiler and in January 1988 released his fourth and final version of c99 for the TI-99/4A on two disks named CREL4A & B. He then turned his attention to developing a C compiler for the Geneve.
Clint wrote other programs some of which were utilities for use with and written in c99. These included:
- 9900 Break-Thru – The Classic Arcade Game adapted for the TI-99/4A.
- TIED - A c99 program to convert archive files (compressed or uncompressed) to an encoded equivalent text file suitable for network transmission and to decode the output file to its original format.
- TIFV – A program similar to TIED for use with text files. It converts DV80 <> DF128 files.
CSTUFF disk – A collection of useful c99 programs and functions, some written by Clint and some by other authors.- RUNOFF1 - This is a translation of the text-formatting program from Kernighan and Plauger's book "Software Tools", modified to take advantage of features of c99.
Programs that Clint wrote for the Geneve/MDOS computer included the following:
- c99 Compiler v4.0g for MDOS – Version 4 of the TI-99/4A c99 compiler adapted for use with the Geneve computer.
- Directory Manager for MDOS – A disk manager program for the Geneve computer. His last TI/Geneve programming work was in early 2000 when he corrected a Y2K problem with this program.
- QDE, QDA and QDL – Program editor, assembler and loader for use with the Geneve computer.
- GED – Geneve version of TIED program.
- Library functions and beta testing for Al Beard's TIC full C compiler.
Clint’s work in developing c99 for both the TI-99/4A and Geneve computers resulted in many other programmers writing useful programs using his c99 compiler and continuing to expand the various library functions used by c99. One programmer rewrote much of c99 in assembly language and adapted it for direct use with FunnelWeb. Another adapted the c99 program and many of its functions for use with the SAMS memory card.
Clint was a speaker at the 1986 TI Faire in Chicago and the 1987 TI Fayuh in Boston. In 1991 he was inducted into the User Group of Orange County Hall of Fame.
Clint graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1964 with a degree in Physics. He worked for Environment Canada until his retirement in 2004 and lives in Burlington, Ontario with his wife Annamaria. Their eldest son, a Technical Manager at a major Canadian Software Management firm, got his career start writing games in TI Basic.
Inducted into the TI99ers Hall of Fame on April 9, 2009