My Projects

 

When I look back on my professional career so far, I realize I have been involved in many different kinds of ventures, and I myself am surprised, at times, when I recall the number of them. But my writing, without a doubt, comes in the first place, because it has yielded the best results. No matter how much I've always loved writing, for a very long time I rejected the idea that it could become my main focus of activity. I was always more interested in other things, such as programming, and, later, in business, too...

My first articles were published in "Galaksija" magazine, in 1981. I wrote mostly about pocket computers. My most popular writing was published in 1983, and it was the special edition of the "Galaksija" magazine, Racunari u vasoj kuci (Computers in your home). That publication was one of several important catalysts of the computer revolution in (ex) Yugoslavia. Later on, Racunari u vasoj kuci became the Racunari magazine. I wrote for that magazine for more than 10 years. In the meanwhile, I also published two books, Masinsko programiranje za Z-80 i 6502 (Assembly Language Programming for Z-80 and 6502, 1987), and Obrada teksta na racunaru (Word Processing, 1988), both of which have appeared in several editions.

All beginnings have their ends, so my cooperation with the Racunari magazine ended in 1995, when, together with Vesna Jeremic and Zoran Zivotic, I founded the PC Press publishing company and the "PC" magazine, the first privately published computer magazine in Yugoslavia. Those were very heady days for us, and they led to the first issue of the "PC" magazine on April 4, 1995. The magazine has been very well accepted by the public, and its reputation in expert circles remains very high. The creation of the "PC" changed many things in my life. The magazine has brought me lots of pleasure, but also duties and responsibilities. I have published a great number of articles in "PC." I am also the co-author of four shareware software CD-ROM editions, the first DVD edition in Serbia, and 15 books: "Windows 95", "Internet", "Windows 95+Office 97", "Windows 98", "Office 2000", "PC Software for Beginners", "DTP for business users", "Windows XP in Serbian", "PC Software Almanach", "PC Software"... Those were the first, and very successful, books to appear in Serbia about the Windows 95/98/XP/Vista, Microsoft Office and the Internet.

The fact that you are looking at this presentation probably means that you already know what Sezam is. This on-line system was founded by Zoran Zivotic and me back in 1989. It turned into an extremely interesting and very successful project. In a short time, Sezam became the biggest and the most important cult BBS in our country. However, after the first few years, Sezam began to stagnate. Zoran and I realized that, under the communal property arrangement, Sezam had no chance to improve any further, so we, together with Danko Jevtovic, started to look for other ways to move forward. The result was the foundation of the SezamPro system on December 19, 1995. In its first year, SezamPro increased the number of users and dial-in lines and, what is more important, the system was fully integrated into the global network on November 1, 1996, when full access from our system to all Internet services was finally achieved. SezamPro later became a nation-wide Internet system, with access points in all Serbian cities, and the leading provider of broadband (ADSL) service in Serbia.

In addition to my well known projects, I have been engaged in many other as well. My first serious project was the Galaxy computer. My role in developing this computer was modest, since Voja Antonic did most of the work, but it was a great experience to follow the evolution of the whole project: I finally realized what it takes for a well designed device to become a successful product. Later on, I was engaged in several other projects: designing the basic operating system for an original (prototype) computer ("Jemina"), a language sensitive editor (PI) for PC, a 68020 cross assembler for Acorn BBC B, various software for microprocessors, different kinds of database management systems and registers. I have also written several public domain utility programs, most of which are designed to customize different types of software for use in Serbian and for the use of the Cyrillic alphabet.