About Michell Computing

Michell Computing is a consultancy whose main work is writing bespoke software. Alongside that sit advice, technical support, and the occasional deep dive into a database or a GIS that has grown awkward with age.

The practice was set up in 1990 by Paul F. Michell. The first decade was corporate management-information systems, mostly Microsoft Access and SQL Server. The work then moved into geographic information systems, first with ESRI and MapInfo, later with open source tools and mapping software written here.

Clients over the years have included:

• British Gas
• Homes and Communities Agency (now Homes England)
• Natural England
• Ordnance Survey
• Procter & Gamble
• Ravenhead Glass
• The Environment Partnership
• The Forestry Commission
• The States of Jersey
• Wigan Borough Council

Paul Michell

Paul is a professional member of the British Computer Society. He holds an MSc from Liverpool Hope University, awarded with distinction for a thesis on landscape visualisation and parallel ray tracing, and a BA. Two articles of his have appeared in C Magazine, and he contributes to the Lazarus project, the Free Pascal development environment.

Tools we actually use

The interesting work now is done with a short list of tools that have proved they will still compile in ten years.

Open source

• Free Pascal and the Lazarus IDE
• PostgreSQL and PostGIS
• QGIS
• Git
• Ubuntu and related Linux systems
• VirtualBox

Commercial systems still in play

• Microsoft Windows
• Microsoft SQL Server
• Microsoft Access and Office VBA
• ESRI ArcGIS
• MapInfo