Brian E. Paul is a computer programmer who originally wrote and maintained the source code for the open source

Mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a ...

graphics library until 2012, and is still active in the project. He began writing its source code in August 1993. Mesa is a

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

/ open source graphics

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

that provides a generic OpenGL implementation for rendering

three-dimensional Three-dimensional space (also: 3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a geometric setting in which three values (called ''parameters'') are required to determine the position of an element (i.e., point). This is the informa ...

graphics on multiple platforms.

Education

Paul obtained his bachelor's degree at the

University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh (UW Oshkosh or UW Osh) is a public university in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It is part of the University of Wisconsin System and offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs to nearly 14,000 students e ...

in 1990. He worked on the SSEC Visualization Project while obtaining his master's degree at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

Mesa development

Paul was a graphics hobbyist. He thought it would be fun to implement a simple 3D graphics library using the OpenGL API, which he might then use instead of

VOGL VOGL is a debugger for the OpenGL rendering API intended to be used in the development of video games. VOGL was originally written at RAD Game Tools and Valve. VOGL is free and open-source software subject to the terms of the MIT License. De ...

. He spent eighteen months of part-time development before he released the software on the Internet. The software was well received, and people began contributing to its development. Graphics hardware support was added to Mesa in 1997 in the form of a

Glide Glide may refer to: * Gliding flight, to fly without thrust Computing *Glide API, a 3D graphics interface *Glide OS, a web desktop *Glide (software), an instant video messenger *Glide, a molecular docking software by Schrödinger (company), Schr� ...

driver for the new 3dfx Voodoo graphics card."Introduction to the Direct Rendering Infrastructure"
Retrieved 2007-02-11

Career

Paul continued working on the SSEC Project after graduation. He has also worked for

Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and sof ...

Avid Technology Avid Technology is an American technology and multimedia company based in Burlington, Massachusetts, and founded in August 1987 by Bill Warner. It specialises in audio and video; specifically, digital non-linear editing (NLE) systems, video edi ...

, and Precision Insight (bought out by

VA Linux Systems Geeknet, Inc. is a Fairfax County, Virginia–based company that is a subsidiary of GameStop. The company was formerly known as VA Research, VA Linux Systems, VA Software, and SourceForge, Inc. History VA Research VA Research was founded in No ...

). In 2000, Paul won the third

Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985, to support the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed under copyleft (" ...

Award for the Advancement of Free Software Free Software Foundation (FSF) grants two annual awards. Since 1998, FSF has granted the award for Advancement of Free Software and since 2005, also the Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit. Presentation ceremonies In 1999 it was pr ...

."Brian Paul is Awarded the Free Software Foundation Award For the Advancement of Free Software"
February 2, 2001; Retrieved February 11, 2007 In November 2001, he co-founded Tungsten Graphics, which was acquired by

VMware VMware, Inc. is an American cloud computing and virtualization technology company with headquarters in Palo Alto, California. VMware was the first commercially successful company to virtualize the x86 architecture. VMware's desktop software ru ...

in December 2008, where he now works.

Other contributions

Paul has also contributed to or written: * Chromium *

Direct Rendering Infrastructure The Direct Rendering Infrastructure (DRI) is the framework comprising the modern Linux graphics stack which allows unprivileged user-space programs to issue commands to graphics hardware without conflicting with other programs. The main use ...

XFree86 XFree86 is an implementation of the X Window System. It was originally written for Unix-like operating systems on IBM PC compatibles and was available for many other operating systems and platforms. It is free and open source software under the X ...

* Blockbuster – a high-res movie player for scientific visualization applications * Glean – OpenGL validation * Togl – an OpenGL widget for Tcl/Tk * Vis5D visualization system * VisAD visualization system * Cave5D – an adaptation of Vis5D to immersive virtual reality * TR – OpenGL tile rendering library * V-Blocks – virtual building blocks * Avid Marquee – video animation, 3D text, graphics

References

External links

Brian Paul's Home Page

"Interview: Brian Paul Answers"
slashdot; December 17, 1999; Retrieved February 11, 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Paul, Brian Free software programmers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni