Frank Borland is more mystique than mystic, as elusive as the Trinity
Alps big foot, as shy as the famous Loch Ness monster. Even at Borland
International, his namesake, few people have ever seen him. The
old-timers recognize him for his remarkable algorithms, still the
fastest in the west. Borland lives deep in the Santa Cruz mountains with
his transportable computer, his burro, and his dogs. In the early days,
he didn't have a permanent homestead, but lived in a couple of camps
deep in the redwood groves. Now, Frank has settled down a little, bought
a cabin, and is raising a family, thanks to the success of his
programming.

These days he is seen even less around town, but still can occasionally
be reached by modem.

If you are a CompuServe user, you are closer to Frank Borland than you
realize. He is writing either a gothic novel or an epic poem -- he
hasn't decided which -- entirely in bulletin board messages left on
different SIGS (Special Interest Groups). But he never uses his real
name, and he switches names often, so his writing is hard to follow.
Look for messages in cadence or rhymes. (You can find information on
Borland products and a Borland SIG by typing GO BOR from any CompuServe
prompt.)

Frank is a warm-hearted person. He wrote Sidekick (one of his latest
programming efforts) for humanitarian reasons. Carrying notepads,
calculator, and calendar from camp to camp was beginning to stunt the
growth of his burro, Lotus, so he wrote Sidekick to make all that
unnecessary. He left a note in our mailbox, saying he'd saved Lotus'
development.

He rarely talks about his background, or why he chose to abandon normal
life and take to the mountains. Some say it had to do with changing the
whole motherboard on a PC, just to replace a single chip. Others blame
the high price of microcomputer software. We don't really know. Do you?