The mission of his new company, Intentional Software, is “making [computer] code look like design,” he says. The idea is to create tools that will allow programmers to make their intent visible to others. “What you get when you look at a computer program now could be produced by the teletype machine,” says Simonyi, who himself began hacking in high school, on a Russian-made Ural II mainframe. He hopes that his new company will make code look more like Web pages. Those working with the code will have an easier time.
Why not do this at Microsoft? “To get the discipline that the marketplace imposes,” says the new CEO. He and cofounder Gregor Kiczales (the force behind Aspect-J, an extension to the Java language that has similar aims) are starting small–about 10 employees in Bellevue, Wash., and another 10 or so programmers in Hungary. Eventually, he hopes his tools and techniques become ubiquitous.
What will Simonyi miss most? The mind-meld sessions with Bill G. The split is amicable (the two companies have a cross-licensing agreement), and start-up cash is no problem: “I’m entirely funded by me,” he says, “which simplifies things greatly.”
