Icon Technology boss Mike Glover retires

Published: 29th Feb 2008, 19:52:16 | Permalink | Printable

Steps down, hands over reins

Icon Technology's Mike Glover, who publishes the popular TechWriter and EasiWriter software packages, has announced he is quitting the business. He said he will stand down after 24 years as boss of Icon and close down his company by the end of March.

ArtWorks programmer Martin Wuerthner, who has been working on the TechWriter word processor family for the past four years, is set to take over the reins and sell the product himself.

Mike, pictured here, said today: "After 24 years of running Icon Technology I have decided that the time has come for me to retire, so I will be closing the company at the end of March and putting myself out to grass.

"This doesn't mean the end for EasiWriter and TechWriter as Martin Wuerthner of ArtWorks fame (who has been developing EW and TW for over four years)
will be taking over the sales."

According to Icon, the company has been writing word processing software since 1984. Its first word processor, MacAuthor, was used by, among various telly script writers, Douglas Adams to write and typeset his best selling book Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. After the success of MacAuthor, Icon published Formulator, an equation editor, and from this TechWriter was developed. Work on the TW family came to a stop after its author and Icon chief coder Bob Pollard died of a long-term illness in 2001. However new versions of the software have been released in recent years, thanks to progress made by Martin Wuerthner.

Links

Icon Technology website

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Discussion

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Enjoy your retirement Mike and RISC OS Shows will not seem the same with out seeing you there beavering away at burning more copies of the latest Tech/Easiwriter releases.

Good news that Martin has stepped in to the breach.

bluenose on 29/2/08 8:12PM
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Well done Mike. Your software and service have been excellent, and I wish you well in your retirement.

tduell on 29/2/08 10:51PM
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Glorious though Mike's reign has been, it is the reins that he will be handing over to Martin.

GavinWraith on 29/2/08 11:32PM
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Wishing Mike well - and thanks for abrilliant product and fantastic service - I hope your retirement is a very long and happy one, well deserved.

DaveW on 29/2/08 11:52PM
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Best Wishes Mike - enjoy your retirement! Cheers, Dave C

DaveC on 29/2/08 11:55PM
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Mike, I wish you all the best for your future and thanks for the good work you did over the years! Easi/TechWriter are two very useful products indeed.

I'm very happy to read that Martin Würthner takes over - as was to be expected since he's in charge of the programming since some time anyhow and does a real good job. This is good especially since Martin is very able and one of the few not only announcing useful enhancements but delivering them in time.

hzn on 1/3/08 8:27AM
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When I did my Open University maths/computing degree in the early 1990s, my tutors were bowled over by the typeset quality of the work I submitted, and one of them commented that my typesetting was better than the course materials that the OU supplied at the time. Thanks for that can largely be credited to TechWriter, which is what I used for setting my assignments.

Icon Technology has always been one of the true stalwarts of the RISC OS scene, with a best-of-class product that was superior to the best equivalents on other platforms. And Mike himself has always been a pleasure to deal with.

So I'm very sorry to see Icon Technology go, but I wish Mike Glover all the best in his retirement. And the products themselves couldn't possibly be in better hands, which must be a great comfort to him.

RichardHallas on 1/3/08 11:19AM
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I use Techwriter at work - for writing user manuals for...

...windows software!!! :-D

Mike - all the best in your retirement and keep up the great work Martin

epistaxsis on 1/3/08 1:02PM
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Mike please accept my best wishes too on your retirement. Your contribution to the RISC OS platform can't be overstated and I can say without fear of contradiction is much appreciated by us all here.

AMS on 2/3/08 12:57AM
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Very good luck Mike in your retirement - but I don't understand - people don't retire today. What's going on!!!!

socris on 2/3/08 11:44AM
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I will miss the 'Mike Glover' Masterclasses on what TechWriter can really do in the hands on an expert. I used to loiter round the Icon stand just to overhear what he was showing people...

markee174 on 2/3/08 12:05PM
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Very best wishes to Mike in his retirement. Easiwriter/Techwriter have always been one of RO's great assets, not least for dealing with those horrible Word documents, so thanks for leaving them in safe and competent hands.

TonyStill on 2/3/08 5:06PM
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Mike, my thanks for a wonderful product and all best wishes for the future.

DS1 on 3/3/08 12:57PM
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Enjoy your retirement Mike. You gave the RO market my favourite word processor - and I've used a lot!

cables on 5/3/08 11:47AM
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Very best wishes for your retirement Mike. I was a late comer to the delights of EasyWriter. A "lite" version came bundled with my Iyonix in 2004. It was not easy to make it do what I wanted at first as it was very different to the Impresson and Ovation I was used to. What bowled me over, however was how good it was with handling "foreign" formats; MSWord documents in particular but also html and PDF. I bought the full version as soon as possible and have updated it at every show ever since. Favourite feature :- Menu:Misc > Insert Lorem Ipsum > labore esse non.....

JohnR on 5/3/08 4:51PM
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I'd like to echo the comments of JohnR, which apply equally to me (didn't know about the Menu:Misc feature though!). I also drop emails onto its iconbar icon to print them out - v. useful. With all good wishes and thanks George

bucksboy on 5/3/08 7:38PM
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I'd also like to wish Mike all the best!

I started using TechWriter back in 1996/1997 after being sold on the benefits of the foreign language and equation support at the Acorn World show. It served me well as a sort of mathematical notebook up until 2001.

I would still use it for things these days, except that I started using GNU/Linux exclusively in 2003, and I'm not about to start using it again under emulation. It would be great to see the MacAuthor-TechWriter story continue on multiple platforms.

davidb on 9/3/08 6:46PM
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