View source for Bill Stewart (programmer)

{{short description|American software developer}}
{{Refimprove|date=November 2020}}
'''William C. "Bill" Stewart''' (1950 – August 2009) was an American [[computer programmer]].

Stewart was born in [[Memphis, Tennessee]].  He founded Stewart Software Company there in 1984 and marketed [[Zilog Z80]] assembly language programs, notably TOOLKIT and the ONLINE 80 Bulletin Board System, for [[RadioShack|Radio Shack]] [[TRS-80]] Computers running TRSDOS. Later that company became Stewart Computer & Supply, Inc.  Switching to 8088 Assembly under [[IBM PC DOS]] and [[MS-DOS]], it released programs via [[shareware]] and commercial distribution.

His shareware FREE.COM was cited as a top 10 PC utility in [[PC Magazine]] in 1987.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=The Utilities That DOS Forgot |first=Paul |last=Somerson |magazine=PC Magazine |date=February 24, 1987 |volume=6 |number=4 |page=176}}</ref>

His commercial programs were oriented towards MS-DOS computer servicing and diagnostics. Commercial products included UNIFORM, a non-destructive reformat for hard drives, CSR, which allowed service shops to archive [[CMOS]] settings from computers they serviced and restore them, and Rx, a small [[terminate-and-stay-resident program]] (TSR) which gave plain English explanations to accompany the often cryptic "[[Abort, Retry, Fail?|Abort, Retry or Ignore?]]" errors generated by DOS by changing it to "Abort, Retry, Ignore or Explain?".

Stewart Computer & Supply, Inc was sold in 1993 and Stewart moved to [[Fort Myers, Florida]] where he continued to write computer diagnostic software for 8088-based machines until 1997, and was a frequent contributor to ''The PC Troubleshooter'' magazine.

Later he lived in [[Cape Coral, Florida]] where he was a [[ham radio operator]], call sign N4CRO, a scuba diver and an amateur weather enthusiast. From 1994 he worked in law enforcement.

Stewart died in August 2009 at the age of 59.

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{URL|www.stewartweather.com}} {{Dead link|date=August 2016}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, Bill}}
[[Category:American computer programmers]]
[[Category:1950 births]]
[[Category:2009 deaths]]


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