John Thompson known as the “Father of Lingo Programming,” Thompson developed the popular scripting language to help render visuals in computer programs. Lingo’s also been used to create flash and shockwave programs found in animation, we design and video games. Programmers might recognize the object-oriented programming language embedded into Macromedia Director and other popular Adobe programs.
Thompson studied art at the New York Student Art League and the Boston Museum School and earned a degree in Computer Science and Visual Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1983. Thompson was the principal engineer for Macromedia Director, the inventor and developer of Lingo and XObjects and a professor of new media at New York University
From 1987 until 2007, Thompson was the chief scientist at Macromedia where he developed a number of products including the VideoWorks Accelerator, VideoWorks II, MediaMaker, Action and Macromedia nwyDirector. He became Senior Principal Software Engineer at Macromedia in 2003. John Thompson is now an owner of JHT Consulting, Bala Cynwyd, PA which provides consulting services for web – based application development.
Even in high school Thompson was interested in computer programming languages. He taught himself several programming languages such as FORTRAN, PLI, COBOL and JCL while working in a New York research facility. Thompsons’ goal was to absorb as much knowledge as possible with intent to invent his own language.
Thompson went on to graduate from MIT with a degree in Computer Science and a minor in Visual Arts. By combining these two seemingly disparate disciplines, he wanted to bridge the gap between art and technology. Four years later as a chief scientist at Macromedia he was able to make a progress towards this goal. He has developed a number of products which many of them are based on his famous invention.
Lingo programming: a scripting language that helps renders visuals in computer programs. Thompson used Lingo in one of his better known computer inventions, Macromedia Director. Macromedia Director is able to incorporate different graphics formats; BMP, AVI, JPEG, Quick Time, PNG, RealVideo and vector graphis to create multi-media content and applications, thus combining computer programming language with visual art.
Lingo is now used with many programs that have interactive simulations with graphics, animation, sound and video. Along with Macromedia Director, he has helped develop MedialMaker, Actions, VideoWorks Accelerator and Video Works II. Lingo has also been used to create flash and shockwave programs that now are prevalent in video games, web design, animation and graphics.
