Watcom

Watcom International Corporation
IndustryComputer software
FoundedWaterloo, Ontario (1981)
HeadquartersWaterloo, Ontario
Key people
Wes Graham, Ian McPhee, Fred Crigger, Jack Schueler
ProductsWatcom C/C++ compiler, Watcom SQL, VX-REXX
Websitewww.openwatcom.com

Watcom International Corporation was a software company, which was founded in 1981 by Wes Graham and Ian McPhee. Founding staff (Fred Crigger, Jack Schueler and McPhee) were formerly members of Professor Graham's Computer Systems Group at the University of Waterloo, in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Watcom produced a variety of tools, including the well-known Watcom C/C++ compiler introduced in 1988.

The first company started by Graham and McPhee was Structured Computing Systems, incorporated in 1974. Then the software development company, WATCOM Systems Inc, started in 1981 with three full-time employees, but had been incorporated two years earlier as Waterloo Basic Enterprises Limited. In 1984, the various subsidiary companies of The WATCOM Group software organization—marketing and sales, publications, seminars and systems (software development) --  were all renamed as WATCOM companies for consistent branding. These were later all merged into one full-service software company, WATCOM International Inc.