Draft:Colin McCormack (programmer)
| Submission declined on 11 September 2025 by Mwwv (talk). This submission's references do not show that the subject qualifies for a Wikipedia article—that is, they do not show significant coverage (not just passing mentions) about the subject in published, reliable, secondary sources that are independent of the subject (see the guidelines on the notability of people). Before any resubmission, additional references meeting these criteria should be added (see technical help and learn about mistakes to avoid when addressing this issue). If no additional references exist, the subject is not suitable for Wikipedia. Your draft shows signs of having been generated by a large language model, such as ChatGPT. Their outputs usually have multiple issues that prevent them from meeting our guidelines on writing articles. These include:
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Comment: Very promotional language. This might just be me, but phrases such as "significant technical achievement" and "reflects an ongoing interest" sound like prose from AI, so, unfortunately, I suggest you (not an AI) rewrite the article entirely. mwwv converse∫edits 19:29, 11 September 2025 (UTC)
Colin McCormack | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | Software engineer |
| Known for | Porting Minix to Applix 1616, ColdStore, Medline informatics access |
Colin McCormack is an Australian software engineer and open-source contributor known for his pioneering work in embedded systems, programming languages, and medical informatics.
He gained recognition in the late 1980s for porting the Minix operating system to the Applix 1616, a unique Australian-made computer, in collaboration with Andrew Morton. McCormack later co-developed ColdStore, an open-source virtual machine toolkit, and was a contributor to the Tcl programming community. In the 1990s, he played a key role in efforts to expand access to electronic health information in Australia, appearing as an expert witness before a federal parliamentary inquiry into medical informatics and telemedicine.
Technical Contributions
[edit]Australian MEDLINE access
[edit]In the late 1990s, McCormack was involved in efforts to improve access to electronic health information for medical professionals in Australia. As part of these initiatives, he was invited to give evidence before the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs. His testimony was recorded extensively in Hansard and highlighted the barriers clinicians faced in accessing key information systems like MEDLINE, which were at the time licensed at significant cost from overseas providers. McCormack advocated for open access and presented solutions based on open-source and Unix-based technologies.[1][2]
Six months after McCormack's testimony, MEDLINE became freely accessible to the public through the newly launched PubMed platform, marking a significant shift in global access to medical research.
Applix 1616 and Minix
[edit]McCormack was instrumental in adapting the Minix operating system to run on the Applix 1616, a Motorola 68000-based computer developed in Australia during the late 1980s. This work represented a significant technical achievement, as it was likely the only successful non-PC port of Minix at the time. Andrew Morton, author of the Applix 1616 manual and later a lead developer of the Linux kernel, credited McCormack with performing the port and described it as unique.[3]
McCormack is also acknowledged in the Applix 1616 technical manual as a contributor to the platform.[4]
In addition to his work on Minix, McCormack modified the HiTech C compiler to produce relocatable binary files. This version of the compiler, known as relcc.c, was designed to support development on the Applix platform and has since been referenced in instructional materials on systems programming.[5]
ColdStore and Unix persistent programming
[edit]In the early 2000s, McCormack was a co-developer and co-founder of ColdStore, an open-source virtual machine toolkit written in C++ that provided a persistent object store and a flexible framework for building language interpreters. The project was notable for its attempt to unify object persistence with runtime programmability, features that were complex and relatively uncommon at the time.
McCormack presented a tutorial on ColdStore and Unix persistent programming at linux.conf.au in 2001, introducing attendees to the system's architecture and use cases.[6]
ColdStore was released under an open-source license and remains hosted on SourceForge.[7]
Tcl contributions
[edit]McCormack has been an active contributor to the Tcl programming language community. He created Wub, a Tcl-based web server, and has developed various tools and extensions shared through the Tcl wiki. His work in this area reflects an ongoing interest in lightweight, flexible language environments and network infrastructure.[8]
Shared Technology and health informatics
[edit]McCormack's involvement in health informatics stemmed in part from his role as a co-principal of Shared Technology, a company focused on applying open-source and Unix-based systems to domains such as medical research. The firm collaborated with academic and medical institutions, including the University of Adelaide, to develop systems that improved clinician access to electronic medical information. Both McCormack and his business partner, Peter Heffernan, were cited by name in testimony to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs.[9]
Archived materials from the University of Adelaide indicate that Shared Technology’s work extended internationally, including collaboration with the Chinese government on expert systems. The company's focus later evolved to include applications in agribusiness and knowledge-based systems.[10]
External links
[edit]• ColdStore on SourceForge • Colin McCormack on the Tcl Wiki
References
[edit]- ^ "Health On Line: Report into Health Information Management and Telemedicine" (PDF). Australian Parliament. Retrieved 2025-05-17.
- ^ "Hansard: House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs" (PDF). Australian Parliament. 1997. Retrieved 2025-05-17.
- ^ Morton, Andrew (2002). "Interview: Andrew Morton". KernelTrap (via Internet Archive). Archived from the original on 23 June 2007. Retrieved 2025-05-17.
- ^ "Applix 1616 Manual". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2025-05-17.
- ^ "C Language Tutorial" (PDF). Retrieved 2025-05-17.
- ^ "linux.conf.au 2001 Papers". Retrieved 2025-05-17.
- ^ "Coldstore Project Page". 3 June 2013. Retrieved 2025-05-17.
- ^ "Colin McCormack". Tcl Wiki. Retrieved 2025-05-17.
- ^ "Hansard: House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs" (PDF). Australian Parliament. 1997. Retrieved 2025-05-17.
- ^ "Expert Systems and Chinese Projects (Archived)". University of Adelaide (archived personal page). Archived from the original on 17 October 2000. Retrieved 2025-05-17.