1. Jim Butterfield is particularly noted for associations with Commodore Business Machines and the Toronto PET Users Group, for many books and articles on machine language programming, and for educational videos and TV programs.
15 Facts About Jim Butterfield
1. 2.
Jim Butterfield was born on 14 February 1936 in Ponoka, Alberta, which is south of Edmonton.
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Jim Butterfield was the third of four children to James and Nancy Butterfield, who had emigrated from England to farm.
4.
Jim Butterfield later attended the University of Alberta and the University of British Columbia but dropped out due to lack of interest.
5.
Jim Butterfield became a full-time freelance writer, programmer, and speaker.
6.
In May 1976, Jim Butterfield became intensely interested in microcomputers, purchasing a MOS KIM-1 and eventually coauthoring a book about the machine.
7.
Jim Butterfield's writing was praised as being "informal and witty in spite of its technical content", and so endeared him to Commodore users that The Transactor once included a centrefold of a Jim Butterfield.
8.
Jim Butterfield helped found the Toronto PET Users Group, and was the invited speaker at its first meeting in 1979.
9.
Jim Butterfield gave speeches at science conferences and computer expos around the world; in Europe he was hailed as the "Commodore Pope".
10.
In 1983, Jim Butterfield appeared as the resident expert in the TVOntario educational series The Academy; the show served as a companion to Bits and Bytes, for which he was already the main source of technical content and author of the accompanying resource book.
11.
Jim Butterfield continued to hold regular classes and seminars at TPUG meetings, World of Commodore shows, and other events until his death.
12.
Jim Butterfield wrote about non-Commodore computers, such as the Atari 8-bit version of Microsoft BASIC.
13.
An early advocate of free and source-available software, Jim Butterfield authored a quarter of the about 80 programs which began the TPUG software library.
14.
Jim Butterfield died at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto on 29 June 2007.
15.
Jim Butterfield's wife, Vicki Butterfield, was not a computer enthusiast, but was an active Rhinoceros Party member who ran for office in Toronto.