This biography of Charles Ehninger(Futura Software) was sent to Dan Eicher in an email
dated Thursday, December 28, 2000 3:40 PM:

1. How did you first get involved with the TI?

I was programming the TI mainframes when TI announced the 99/4.
I got curious and bought one.

2. What is your favorite TI memory?
The great rapport that we established with some of our users.

3. What TI personality did you find the most interesting?

There was a blind fellow (I can't remember his name), who swore he could
feel the action in my software by pressing his hand on the monitor's face.
He was a professional magician and wrote the program on first aid (I
forgot the name of it) which we marketed.

4. What's you favorite TI hardware/software?

I had two:

(1) the voice simulator (I forgot what it was called) and

(2) the hard-disk. As far as software, I'll have to say that the
    assembler was my most favorite.

5. What is the hardest technical challenge you have over come on the TI?

The hardest challenge was in the business software. Creating indexed files
for random access was a very challenging piece of work.

6. If you had had unlimited time and money, what program would you like to
write for the TI or hardware would you like to build?

I would like to build a graphic model of the universe. I had started on
a program that simulated the Solar system and its motion according to
Newton's laws and keeping within E=MC**2. I would have loved to have
the time and resources to have finished it.

7. What was it like to win TI's programming contest?
It was a very rewarding and at the same time humbling experience.
After the "Household Inventory" program, I wrote "Baseball" and sent it
in to the user's group as freeware. I was encouraged by the group to go
commercial, which I did.

8. Who did the cover's of your manuals (I think they are really
professional, even by todays standards!)?

The covers and the logo were designed by a very talented local commercial
artist, well known throughout Texas. His name is Lewis Daniel. I have
some of his work still gracing the walls of my living room.

9. In a day and age, when most people were oohing and aahing over simple
Basic programs that beeped, allowed the user to enter their name and print
it back out, your program's exhibited a very professional feel. Did you
have a lot of systems experience before writting programs on the TI?

Yes, I did. I spent years in the military at the Pentagon as a member of
the team who designed and programmed the "Global Warfare" games that were
played by military teams as military exercises. I also participated at
Los Alamos in the measuring the effects of (and simulating on a computer)
the atomic blasts that took place In Anawetok and Nevada in the 1950s.

10. What is the biggest and last TI gatherings you attended?

The biggest has to be the TI99/4 Expo in San Francisco; the last gathering
was in Houston, which I was invited to attend by those generous folk.

11. Which was the best selling program?

12. Which was the hardest to write?

The Payroll programs for the Futura Business Suite.

13. What was your favorite language on the TI and why? There really was
not much to chose from: It was either Basic, Extended Basic or Assembly.
I liked Extended Basic because of its flexibility and I liked Assembly
because of the speed of assembly programs and its graphic capabilities.

14. Since you were one of the first and biggest independent software
houses, did you get a lot of requests to market people's software for them?

Not too many. I did get some which we marketed successfully. More than
software, we got many ideas from users. I remember one, a military man who
gave me the info to develop "Sam Defense", which was based on a military
secret defense system.

I hope you find these answers to be what you were looking for. If you have
any further questions, or would like me to expound on any one question,
please let me know.

Charles M. Ehninger
JDinero@airmail.net