Donald E. Lancaster is an American author, inventor, and

microcomputer A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PC ...

pioneer.

Background

Lancaster is a writer and engineer, who authored multiple articles for computer and electronics magazines of the 1970s, including ''

Popular Electronics ''Popular Electronics'' was an American magazine published by John August Media, LLC, and hosted at TechnicaCuriosa.com. The magazine was started by Ziff-Davis Publishing Company in October 1954 for electronics hobbyists and experimenters. It soo ...

'', ''

Radio Electronics Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

'', ''

Dr. Dobb's Journal ''Dr. Dobb's Journal'' (''DDJ'') was a monthly magazine published in the United States by UBM Technology Group, part of UBM plc, UBM. It covered topics aimed at computer programmers. When launched in 1976, DDJ was the first regular periodical focu ...

'', '' 73 Magazine'', and ''

Byte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...

''. He has written books on electronics, computers, and entrepreneurship, both commercially published and self-published. An early project was his "

TV Typewriter The TV Typewriter is a video terminal that could display two pages of 16 lines of 32 upper case characters on a standard television set. The design, by Don Lancaster, appeared on the cover of ''Radio-Electronics'' magazine in September 1973. The ...

" dumb terminal. This design was accepted by early microcomputer users as it used an ordinary television set for the display, and could be built with around US $200 in parts, at a time when commercial terminals were selling for over US $1,000. Lancaster was an early advocate and developer of what is now known as

print-on-demand Print on demand (POD) is a printing technology and business process in which book copies (or other documents, packaging or materials) are not printed until the company receives an order, allowing prints of single or small quantities. While oth ...

technology. Lancaster produced his self-published books by re-purposing the game port of an

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

to transfer

PostScript PostScript (PS) is a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm. It is a dynamically typed, concatenative programming language. It was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Doug Br ...

code directly to a

laser printer Laser printing is an electrostatic digital printing process. It produces high-quality text and graphics (and moderate-quality photographs) by repeatedly passing a laser beam back and forth over a negatively-charged cylinder called a "drum" to d ...

, rather than using a

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

running

PageMaker Adobe PageMaker (formerly Aldus) is a discontinued desktop publishing computer program introduced in 1985 by the Aldus Corporation on the Apple Macintosh. The combination of the Macintosh's graphical user interface, PageMaker publishing software, ...

. This enabled continuous book production using an inexpensive Apple II, rather than tying up an expensive Macintosh until the print run was complete. He helped design and manufacture the

Apple I The Apple Computer 1, originally released as the Apple Computer and known later as the Apple I or Apple-1, is an 8-bit desktop computer released by the Apple Computer Company (now Apple Inc.) in 1976. It was designed by Steve Wozniak. The i ...

keyboard, and formerly held a

ham radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communic ...

license (K3BYG). Lancaster now publishes articles related to his areas of interest on his website
The Guru's Lair

Education

Don graduated from North Allegheny High School in

Wexford, Pennsylvania Wexford is an unincorporated community in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. The area known as Wexford is split among multiple municipalities, including Franklin Park, McCandless Township, Pine Township, and Marshall Township. It i ...

.Don Lancaster - Detailed Biography
/ref> He has a BSEE degree from

Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 1832. The founders voted to name the college after General Laf ...

in 1961, and a MSEE from

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

in 1967.Don Lancaster - General Biography
/ref>

Publications

;IC books * '' RTL Cookbook'' (1ed, 1969) (3ed, 2010,
''archive''
* ''

TTL TTL may refer to: Photography * Through-the-lens metering, a camera feature * Zenit TTL, an SLR film camera named for its TTL metering capability Technology * Time to live, a computer data lifespan-limiting mechanism * Transistor–transistor lo ...

Cookbook'' (1ed, 1974,
''archive''
* ''

CMOS Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS, pronounced "sea-moss", ) is a type of metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) fabrication process that uses complementary and symmetrical pairs of p-type and n-type MOSFE ...

Cookbook'' (1ed, 1977) (4ed, 2019,
''archive''
* ''

Active Filter An active filter is a type of analog circuit implementing an electronic filter using active components, typically an amplifier. Amplifiers included in a filter design can be used to improve the cost, performance and predictability of a filter. ...

Cookbook'' (1ed, 1975) (2ed, 1995,
''archive''
;Project books * ''

Cookbook'' (1ed, 1976) (3ed, 2010,
''archive''
* ''Cheap Video Cookbook'' (1ed, 1978,
''archive''
* ''Son of Cheap Video'' (1ed, 1980,
''archive''
;Apple books * ''Assembly Cookbook for Apple II/IIe'' (1ed, 1984) (3ed, 2011, ) * ''Enhancing Your Apple II - Volume 1'' (1ed, 1985, ) * ''Enhancing Your Apple II and IIe - Volume 2'' (1ed, 1985, ) * ''Applewriter Cookbook'' (1ed, 1986, ) ;Programming books * ''The Hexadecimal Chronicles'' (1981) * ''Don Lancaster's Micro Cookbook'' (Sams, 1982) ;Other * ''The Incredible Secret Money Machine'' (1978) * ''The Incredible Secret Money Machine II'' * ''Book-On-Demand Resource Kit'' * ''The Case Against Patents : Selected Reprints from "Midnight Engineering" & "Nuts & Volts" Magazines'' (Synergetics Press, January 1996). Paperback

References

External links

Don Lancaster's Guru's Lair
(official site)
Don's general bio

Don's detailed bio

List of Don's magazine articles
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lancaster, Don American technology writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Amateur radio people