About Me Rob Nelson, Author of Sagebox I have worked in the development community for 20 years, mostly with C/C++ and assembly language.  I've worked with embedded systems, image processing, neural networking, and various products.  I am also the author of Sagelight Image Editor and Sagebox. I used to work for Borland in the glory days, where I learned how to write compilers and large-scale systems, and then went on to private consulting where I wrote Sagebox as my main development tool. About Sagebox Sagebox was written in pieces over the last 10+ years.  It started after I left Borland, where I wrote a full-in scripting language, IDE, and Windows Kernel to support both a scripting language as well as native C/C++ support. I showed it to Microsoft, which they liked, but were focused on C# at the time -- ironically, with one of my co-workers from Borland.   Microsoft said it was a great product, but I wasn't able to finish the IDE portion of it because it needed too much investment (time and money). Emulating an entire System in Less Time to Develop a Single Task When I worked for Pioneer, which made set-top box software, I was given 3 weeks to perform a single task.  This was because I was new and there was a learning curve, but also because Pioneer had no real way to develop off the the hardware. So, I took a risk -- With the tools in Sagebox (then called Davinci), I emulated the entire embedded system on the PC and finished more core work in less time than I was given.  This was due to the power of emulating systems. The hardest part was creating a version of the embedded software that would cross-compiled.  Emulating systems is actually easy if you have the write framework. When Pioneer saw it, I was given a great raise and the sofware was licensed so everyone could use it. Sagelight Image Editor After using Sagebox on various projects (Pioneer is one of a few stories where I was able to create powerful tools with a fast turnaround), I started writing Sagelight Image Editor.  Sagelight is written using Sagebox, and Sagebox grew much larger and more powerful as I developed Sagelight. Starting Sagebox (as it is now) For some time, I've wanted to move what was called Davinci into Sagebox to release it to the community (I couldn't keep the name Davinci because it's used for another product).  In the last year, because of the pandemic, I found myself with the time to finally get Sagebox out.  It took 7 months of full-time work, and I am very pleased with the results. Moving into 2021 I have a lot of plans for Sagebox, and the Alpha version is just the start.  For various reasons, Sagebox is just as or more viable than it was when I originally wrote it for a scripting-language/C++ tool.  This is because not only are computers much faster, C/C++ (with C++ 11 and forward) supports a methdology that allows Sagebox to be much simpler in its interface. The C/C++ development community is now more accepting of alternative methods of internally handling OS's like Windows, as well as the idea that alternative methods to event-driven programming in a GUI OS like Windows is fine. Right now, Sagebox is free for personal use, and I am looking for fund-raising and donations to support the development as it moves forward.  It is a very large project and does need financing in some manner, to be determined as the Alpha version is out there for a while. I am looking forward to working on Sagebox as a permanent product and focusing my full attention and time to it in the future.  I am very proud of what I have been able to accomplish with Sagebox, and am excited about adding to it in the next year.