Phil Katz
Phillip "Phil" Walter Katz (born November 3, 1962 in Milwaukee ; † April 14, 2000 there ) was an American programmer . Katz developed the ZIP archive file format and the associated deflate algorithm.
life and career
In 1977 he and a colleague optimized programs for programmable pocket calculators . In 1980, Katz graduated from Nicolet High School and enrolled at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee as a student for the Computer Science Program.
In 1984, Katz successfully graduated and started working as a programmer at Allen-Bradley . There he wrote source code for programmable logic controllers . In 1986, Katz moved to the software company Graysoft (now FasTrak SoftWorks, Inc.) in Milwaukee. In 1987 he left Graysoft to devote himself entirely to his own company “PKWare” ( P hil K atz Ware ).
Katz wanted to improve the speed and efficiency of the then leading data compression program ARC from System Enhancement Associates (SEA) and in 1985 wrote an ARC-compatible compression program in assembler called PKArc . He distributed the program through Bob Mahoney's BBS using the shareware principle, which was still new at the time, and made enough money to set up his own company in 1986: PKWare, Inc. This caught the attention of SEA, who accused Katz of stealing the ARC source code and therefore went to court. During the course of the negotiation, it became apparent that Katz had adopted parts of the ARC code 1: 1, including comments and typing errors. Following the amicable agreement negotiated on August 1, 1988 between Katz and Thom Henderson of SEA, he stopped selling PKArc and brought out PKPak, which differed from PKArc practically only by the name.
Soon after, he developed a completely new, greatly improved compression program that far surpassed ARC compression: PKZIP - Phil Katz 'Zip program. The program was distributed via mailboxes from 1989, like PKArc before, and achieved great popularity within a short time. Most BBS operators switched from ARC to ZIP, so BBS users also had to use PKZip, while ARC software became increasingly less important.
Katz declared the ZIP format (not the program itself) to be in the public domain . It was not until 1996 that PKWare brought out a version of Windows. At this point in time, WinZip from Nicosoft (now Winzip, Inc) had been on the market for a number of years and PKWare could not make up the lost market share. Despite such wrong decisions PKWare obtained a value of several million dollars and moved into an office building in Brown Deer ( Wisconsin ). Katz continued to work in the company as an active programmer. He left the business part to his mother and other employees.
During the same period, his alcohol addiction increased. He has been arrested several times for driving without a license. To avoid further arrests, he finally stayed completely away from his luxurious apartment and only lived in motels. He stayed in contact with PKWare by fax and e-mail.
On April 14, 2000, Katz was found dead in a Milwaukee motel room. Bleeding from the pancreas , caused by acute alcohol poisoning, was found to be the cause of death . Phil Katz was 37 years old. After his death, PKWare was bought by a group of investors in March 2001.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Katz, Phil |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Katz, Phillip Walter (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American software developer, inventor of ZIP compression |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 3rd November 1962 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Milwaukee |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 14, 2000 |
| Place of death | Milwaukee |