Hi, I'm Leighton Paul (yes, Paul is my last name) --the author of WorldClock.
I have a day job as a high-school vice principal, formerly a teacher of chemistry, physics, computer science, and mathematics. I fool with my computer in the evenings and on weekends.
WorldClock was born in 1987 as a simple DA that gave sunrise and sunset times for the user's location. It was distributed to a few people for comments, and the "could you add this" and "could you add that" process started. The program grew quite a bit as a result of such comments.
Some of the people I have shown WorldClock to offered some more excellent comments. "How about some clocks to show the time in other cities?" "It would be great if you added color!" "What I really would like is information about the moon."
In time, these features were added, one by one, while continuing to send it out for comments. One problem that complicated this very long-term process was the fact that WorldClock was started on a Macintosh 512, and then work has been continued on aMacintosh Plus, a Macintosh SE HD20, then a Macintosh II, Macintosh SE/30, a IIci, a Macintosh Portable, a Quadra 950, a Duo 230, Duo 280, and most recently on a PowerBook 5300.
Recent changes include addition of the initial great-circle bearing to each clock, the ability to edit daylight saving rules as they change, and the ability to save a monthly file of almanac information for the current or selected month and location.
I've generally taken WorldClock with me on vacation. WorldClock has been worked on and tested for accuracy in Outback Australia, England, Alaska, Hawaii, and of course, extensively tested in beautiful Tehachapi, California. The moon routines were added in 1993 on a vacation drive from Perth, Australia, to Melbourne. The coastline along the Great Australian Bight is incredible!
My goal in writing WorldClock is to present complex information in a pleasing, understandable, graphic sort of way - to provide information needed quickly at a glance, and to allow for experimentation when the interest arises. The program provides hard data along with the easy-to-visualize graphics. Look at whichever you wish, or both! Play with the experimental features built in to WorldClock!
I hope you enjoy WorldClock and get good use from it.
