Bio: Alexander Ivanovsky

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Bio: Alexander Ivanovsky
5-Nov-2002 -- Susan Pichotta
 
This week, the Icetips News Network is pleased to present our first bio from Russia! A Clarionite since forever, this developer is now known for his involvement in third-party tools. When he's not using Clarion, he's spending time with his family and taking photos, many of which you can see in this bio (don't miss the ones at the end).
 
Who do you work for?
At first, like many of the Russian programmers, I had constant, official work, where I was an employee. I work for a large trading company as a Clarion programmer, where I write programs for internal use.
 
And in the last year, my friend Evgeny Stefanenko and I organized the SealSoft company. SealSoft creates tools for the Clarion developer, as a 3rd party company, and is our second life. I work on my day job from 9am to 6pm, then to home to our second work, to SealSoft ;-) Usually, I sit down to the computer after 7:30 or 8:00 pm, and work til 1:00 - 3:00 am. Sometimes, when I am tired from my day job, these hours are reduced. Or sometimes I simply have a rest with my family.
 
Frequently, Evgeny and I meet after work at my home and do something together… updates to our site, corrections in our products, or we discuss new ideas. Before we started SealSoft, I wanted to work with Evgeny. We were friends already, for about 10 years, but we worked always in different organizations. However, we had worked together on other projects, and I always enjoyed working with him. We complement each other.
 
What do you like best about what you do now?
Probably the dialogue (relationships, contacts) with new people. For the 1.5 years we've been in operation, our company has made us many new friends and we've become familiar with many different countries around the world. It is very nice.
 

 
What has been one of your biggest challenges in using Clarion?
I do not know. Always it is necessary to win against some new challenge :-)
 
What has been one of your biggest challenges in business?
My written English. Sometimes it is very difficult for me to correctly and competently express my thoughts. I read English almost without problems, very "freely", but to write…
 
Do you use any computer languages besides Clarion?

Evgeny Stefanenko, my business partner.

I don't. Only Clarion. Why? I do not know. In the course of my life it was impossible to study, really there was no possibility. Although, I know it would be good if I knew C ++ or Assembler. But in that, I rely on Evgeny. He has knowledge of these languages, and he knows Perl and Delphi, besides.
 
Though… now I will say that I begin to slightly understand Perl. As our sites, www.clarionlife.net, photo.seal-soft.com and the new version of our www.seal-soft.com (which we will release for the general public this week) are completely written in Perl by Evgeny. And so I try to learn and understand Perl, too.
 
When did you start using Clarion?
I became acquainted with Clarion, it seems, more than 10 years back. In 1991, it was CPD 2.0
 
And it was by an almost "contraband" way :-) We first saw it in Khabarovsk, and honestly, I shall tell: it was a "pirated" version. But, in those times in Russia, it was very difficult to acquire software legally. So, some persons who I knew became users of CPD. And I was among them. And honestly, I shall tell, this unknown until now product really struck us! It was something fancy!
 

My work place, i.e. SealSoft's headquarters :-)

Some of us who moved to Clarion possessed experience using other languages (dBase, FoxPro, Clipper). For me, it was even easier. I had only to determine a choice of the programming language for use. And here appeared Clarion! For me, it was love at first sight, and forever ;-)
 
Very soon, the number of Clarion adherents in Khabarovsk began to increase. I had begun to work in programming for a company which developed products in Clarion as their primary activity. As the commercial distribution of products was planned, I convinced the chiefs of this company of the necessity to have a legal copy CPD, and they did so. From the Arsis Company (the official distributor of Clarion in Russia, in those times it was still known as "Insight"), we purchased CPD 2.1. Now we could, with a pure conscience, develop and sell our products. This was in 1992.
 

The Far East Clarion Users Group, in 1993 and 2002. Zoom In

Then, after officially purchasing CPD, we had the idea to create in Khabarovsk a group of Clarion users, and it was done. November 6, 1992 the first meeting took place, in which our group - FECUG (Far East Clarion Users Group) was created, and your humble servant was elected president of the group. So November 6, 1992, we consider the birthday of our group, and that means it's been around for 10 years now.
 
I must say that our group operated rather actively ;-) We met two times a month (each 1st and 3rd Friday) for 6 years. In total, our group consisted of more than 20 programmers. During this time, very interesting developments were made by members of our group. For example,

My wife, Olga

COVL (Clarion Overlay Manager) was developed by Stanislav Bezgin. I do not know how it fared outside of Russia, but in our country this program was very popular. Then, the translation to Russian of the CFD 3.0 documentation was done by Serge Agarkov, another member of our group, and that was very popular.
 
So you see, our group was a part of our life. It was our second family, second home ;-) The last few years we haven't met so frequently, since with the development of the Internet in our country, each person could receive fresh information about Clarion and new developments for themselves. But, during it's years of existence, the members of the group all became friends and, certainly, stayed in touch both within and outside of the group. In September of this year, on Friday the 13th ;-) we met again after several years and had a wonderful time, as we sat and recollected everything that we have gone through for these 10 years.
 
I think that we must also get together and celebrate the ten year anniversary of our group.
 
What's the coolest project(s) you've worked on using Clarion?
I think that, first of all, I would say a complex network program

Me, a few years ago (age 1)

to automate the operation of Commodity exchange, written in CPD 2.1. The software was successfully introduced on several exchanges of the Far East. Why this program? Because, this was the first I worked on that was a serious project. Then there were many others, in CPD 2.1, CFD 3.1, Clarion for Windows. I won't list all of them.
 
Have you done anything for a living other than software development?
No. Programming is my only tool for existence. I shall not say that I know nothing else… simply that I very much love Clarion. And it is very pleasing to me that I know how to use it. It is sometimes received not so poorly ;-)
 
What are your hobbies/what do you like to do when you're not using Clarion?
Recently I have again taken a great interest in what I enjoyed in my youth, photography. The truth is that now, it's at a new level with digital photos. As all my life is connected to the computer, it's perfect for me. Both my job and entertainment center, for both music and for movies, and now also for operation with photos, are all connected to my computer.
 
Married, children, grandchildren, other close family you want to mention?
In contrast with my choice of a programming language, my choices when it came to women were not so successful ;-) It was necessary to make two unsuccessful attempts before I found that one, unique woman, to whom I am now married: my wife Olga, the person most beloved and closest to me. We have charming daughter, Vera (Faith), and we adore

My mother-in-law, Natalia Petrovna, my daughter, Vera, my wife, Olga, my father-in-law Alexey Yakimovich and Snoppy.

her. Next to her would be the grandmother and grandfather; truth be told, I have the perfect mother-in-law and father-in-law. My parents have already passed from this life, and these people have replaced them for me. So, I have a perfect family, and
I am very happy!
 
Where were you born? Where do you live now?
I was born (5 Feb 1963), have grown up and live now in Khabarovsk. I love this city. I will allow that some things about it may be bad, but it is my native city. All my existence is connected with this city.
 
What's interesting about where you live?
Here there are a lot of favorite places and a lot of interesting things. To tell about them, a lot of time would be required. We try to tell about our city on our site: http://photo.seal-soft.com
 
Have you lived any other interesting places?
No, I haven't -- in other cities I have not lived. Certainly, I have been to other cities in our country. But, in the majority of cases it was for working, business trips.

Ivanovskaya Irina Vikentievna, my mother

 
Which person, from past or present, do you most admire and why?
It would be my mum. She has already passed from this life. I very much respected and loved her. She gave me not only life, but also much more, without which I would not be what and who I am.
 
It was, of necessity, very hard. She brought me up alone, without my father. And it was not easy, furthermore, it was complicated by some reasons about which it is not necessary to speak in this story. A thank you to you, mum!
 
What is your favorite food?
Well… there are many favorite dishes. But likely, first of all I would say fried potatoes. But, not "Fried Potatoes - chips by America", this is fried potatoes, the Russian way. :) Well, and fried chicken.
 
What is your favorite drink?
Among non-alcoholic drinks, it first of all is coffee, then certainly juices (tomato, orange, grapefruit). From those drinks with alcohol, I love beer. Of course, you can ask about Russian Vodka ;-) Yes, we drink this liquid too ;-)) but only on special occasions…
 
What is your favorite type of music?
I love different kinds of music. From Russian music, I love the so-called bards, i.e. poets singing with acoustic guitar their songs, verses. Vladimir Vysotsky, Youry Vizbor, Youry Kukin. And Russian rock groups:

Vera and Olga

DDT, Nautilus Pompilius. I don't like Russian pop-music.
 
From pop and rock I love the old music, and music from the years when I was young. Here it is possible to list so much. My favorites - The Beatles, Queen, Pink Floyd, ABBA, Smokie, ELO (Electric Light Orchestra), Arabesque, Dire Straits, Shocking Blue, Nazareth, Secret Service, etc.
 
What is your favorite book? Movie?
It's been awhile since I had time to read very much. In my childhood, I liked adventure novels: Thomas Mayne Reid, James Fenimore Cooper, Jules Vern. The books about animals by Gerald Durrell.
 
I have more favorite films. I love our Russian comedies. Have watched them for an uncountable amount of time. It is a special genre: comedies not of situations (falling, pie in a face, etc.), rather, it is necessary to listen to Russian comedies. And to understand.
 
It is necessary to know Russian and Russian people to laugh at the Russian comedies; any other person would be simply bewildered and shrug….
 
From foreign films I watch, certainly, fantasy, action, historical films, melodrama, and family films. To list them would be lengthy, but some I shall name. "Back to the Future (All)", Once Upon Time In America (this film is very pleasant), Die Hard (All), Brave Heart,

Bath time for Vera!

Dances with Wolves, City of Angels, You've Got Mail, The Devil's Advocate, Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Indiana Jones (with Harrison Ford), James Bond (with Sean Connery), Legends of the Fall, Nikita (with Jean Reno and Tcheky Karyo), etc. I don't like foreign comedy.
 
If Clarion never existed, what do you think you would be doing at this time?
I do not know… can it be, I would not exist too? :-)
 
Seriously… could be a photographer, like Boyd Norton; or a biologist, like Gerald Durrell. These professions interest me.
 
Anything else you want to mention?
I want to say thank you to Susan and Arnor for giving me the chance to tell about myself. I hope that it was not so boring for you, my dear friends, to read all these delirious ramblings. :)
 
Sincerely yours, Alexander Ivanovsky
 

Winter in Khabarovsk. View of apartment house where we rent a flat.

Summer in Khabarovsk. Sunset on the Amur River.

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