Founded in London, England, in 1995, The 4c Company can trace its origins back as far as 1981, when its founder first started developing
utility software from his bedroom in Sheffield in the West Riding of Yorkshire. As an avid user of early Bulletin Board Systems being run on
home micro-computers, most of this software was aimed at these Bulletin Board Systems and was distibuted under the then popular shareware
model.
As CP/M and similar early computer disk operating systems gave way to newer PC operating systems, Revelation Software Ltd., as it was in
the late '80s, was very much at the forefront of computer technology. Developing new utility software and porting its existing software
to these newer platforms, including various flavours of DOS, Windows™ and OS/2®, became its top priority. The introduction of
MFC in 1992 and IOC in 1993 made the development of GUI software far faster and command line utilities were re-developed as graphical
applications.
The launch of GNU/Linux in 1991, heralded the porting of some of the more indispensible utilites whose functionality was not available
through the regular GNU toolset, however, the lack of a powerful, programmer friendly class library like IOC hampered the development of
new software. This was when the company developed and released its first open-source class library, the 'Revelation Foundation Classes'.
This was a cross-platform library, designed to be used on GNU/Linux, DOS, Windows and OS/2.
When a move to North America started to become a real possibility in 1995, Revelation Software was disbanded and The 4c Company was created
to avoid trademark conflicts. The company's first offices in North America were opened in Brooklyn, NY, in 2002. Although the original founder
moved to Ontario, Canada, the New York offices remained open to support the company's growing US client base.
Once in Canada, a satellite office was opened in Hamilton, ON and, when this moved to Brantford, ON, the New York office was scaled down to
a single support staff member. Development of our key products now continues in Canada, however, there is an unbroken history of developing
high quality software stretching from the earliest days of micro-computers to the present day. Although expanding the functionality of the
Revelation Foundation Class Library has long since stopped and its role has been significantly reduced, it is still maintained and available
as a cross platform, open source class library.
Founded in London, England, in 1995, The 4c Company can trace its origins back as far as 1981, when its founder first started developing
utility software from his bedroom in Sheffield in the West Riding of Yorkshire. As an avid user of early Bulletin Board Systems being run on
home micro-computers, most of this software was aimed at these Bulletin Board Systems and was distibuted under the then popular shareware
model.
As CP/M and similar early computer disk operating systems gave way to newer PC operating systems, Revelation Software Ltd., as it was in
the late '80s, was very much at the forefront of computer technology. Developing new utility software and porting its existing software
to these newer platforms, including various flavours of DOS, Windows™ and OS/2®, became its top priority. The introduction of
MFC in 1992 and IOC in 1993 made the development of GUI software far faster and command line utilities were re-developed as graphical
applications.
The launch of GNU/Linux in 1991, heralded the porting of some of the more indispensible utilites whose functionality was not available
through the regular GNU toolset, however, the lack of a powerful, programmer friendly class library like IOC hampered the development of
new software. This was when the company developed and released its first open-source class library, the 'Revelation Foundation Classes'.
This was a cross-platform library, designed to be used on GNU/Linux, DOS, Windows and OS/2.
When a move to North America started to become a real possibility in 1995, Revelation Software was disbanded and The 4c Company was created
to avoid trademark conflicts. The company's first offices in North America were opened in Brooklyn, NY, in 2002. Although the original founder
moved to Ontario, Canada, the New York offices remained open to support the company's growing US client base.
Once in Canada, a satellite office was opened in Hamilton, ON and, when this moved to Brantford, ON, the New York office was scaled down to
a single support staff member. Development of our key products now continues in Canada, however, there is an unbroken history of developing
high quality software stretching from the earliest days of micro-computers to the present day. Although expanding the functionality of the
Revelation Foundation Class Library has long since stopped and its role has been significantly reduced, it is still maintained and available
as a cross platform, open source class library.