Don Lancaster

Donald E. Lancaster was an American author, inventor, and microcomputer pioneer.^[1]

Background

Don graduated from North Allegheny High School in Wexford, Pennsylvania.^[2] He received a BSEE degree from Lafayette College in 1961, and a MSEE from Arizona State University in 1967.^[3]

Lancaster was a writer and engineer, who wrote multiple articles for computer and electronics magazines of the 1970s, including Popular Electronics, Radio-Electronics, Dr. Dobb's Journal, 73 Magazine, and Byte. He has written books on electronics, computers, and entrepreneurship, both commercially published and self-published.^[1]

One of his early projects was "TV Typewriter" serial terminal.^[1] The design was accepted by early microcomputer users as it used an ordinary television set for the display and could be built for around USD$200 in parts, at a time when commercial terminals were selling for over $1,000.

Lancaster was an early advocate and developer of what is now known as print-on-demand technology. Lancaster produced his self-published books by re-purposing the game port of an Apple II to transfer PostScript code directly to a laser printer, rather than using a Macintosh running PageMaker. This enabled continuous book production using an inexpensive Apple II, rather than tying up an expensive Macintosh until the print run was complete.

He formerly held a ham radio license (K3BYG).

Publications

IC books

• ISBN 0-672-20715-X, archive
  )
• ISBN 0-672-21035-5, archive
  )
• ISBN 0-672-21398-2, archive
  )
• ISBN 0-75062986-X, archive
  )