Donald E. Lancaster was an American author, inventor, and microcomputer pioneer.

Background

Don graduated from North Allegheny High School in Wexford, Pennsylvania. He received a BSEE degree from Lafayette College in 1961, and a MSEE from Arizona State University in 1967. 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. One of his early projects was "TV Typewriter" serial terminal. 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