Bioequivalence and Bioavailability Forum

Dear Pandu,

NONLIN was developed by Carl Metzler at the Upjohn Company / Kalamazoo in FORTRAN-66 for mainframes (e.g., the Sperry UNIVAC 9000). In the beginning NONLIN was freeware (although this term didn’t exist); if you wrote a nice letter to Carl you received a 10.5" diameter reel of ½" 9-track magnetic tape.*

References:

1. Metzler CM. A User’s Manual for NONLIN. The Upjohn Co., Kalamazoo, Michigan; 1969: Technical Report 7297/69/7292/005.
   
2. Metzler CM, Elfring GL, McEwen AJ. A Users Manual for NONLIN and Associated Programs. The Upjohn Company, Kalamazoo, Michigan; 1974.
   
3. Metzler CM, Elfring GL, McEwen AJ. A package of computer programs for pharmacokinetic modeling. Biometrics. 1974; 30(3): 562–3.
4. Metzler CM, Weiner DL. NONLIN84: User’s Guide. Statistical Consultants Inc., Lexington, Massachusetts; 1984.

The first DOS-version PCNONLIN was developed in 1986 (IBM PC, 512K RAM, DOS 2.0+), also by Statistical Consultants; somewhere I still might have the 3.5" Floppy…
In the early 90ies there was also a binary (compiled) version for VAX-machines (VAX NONLIN for VAX/VMS 3.0+), and FORTRAN source code (renamed from NONLIN84 to PORTABLE NONLIN) available (for almost any operating system equipped with a FORTRAN-compiler). The Windows version (WinNonlin 1) was published in 1998 also by Scientific Consultants after their move to Cary, North Carolina – which (by chance?) is also the headquarter of the SAS Institute.

For a history of SAS see here.

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• When I was with a generic company in the early 1980s I showed the tape to one of our IT-guys and asked whether they can set up a terminal in my lab to access the stuff on our main-frame. The conversation was funny.
  IT: OK, that’s the source. Which language?
  I: FORTRAN-66.
  IT: We are running a business here; we have COBOL. Do you know how much a FORTRAN-compiler for our system costs?
  I: No idea.
  IT: More than 25,000 bucks. Go and play somewhere else.
  I: THX!
  Went down to my lab and shelved the tape.