Mosher first tried writing software simply to analyze his stores’ transactions. Then in the early 80s  his software focused on what he saw as an intriguing area to master, touch-screen technology. "Voila," he reminisces, "the world's first POS software/solution on a computer, Gene Mosher's Old Canal Cafe, 316 S. Clinton ST., Syracuse, NY, 1980. I stayed up till nearly dawn for several months to write the world's first PC POS system. It had order entry, remote kitchen printing, sales analysis, inventory cost accounting, time-clock, and labor cost accounting."

Mosher eventually moved out West to set up a company to do restaurant software development full time. That move resulted in his company, Oregon-based ViewTouch, which unabashedly presents its own evolution in a litany of firsts, including ViewTouch as a business that pioneered the use of  the "color-graphic touch-screen Point of Sale computer" for the food & beverage industry.

Nonetheless, Mosher says ViewTouch has a number of important  characteristics that set it apart from other POS software. The menu can be changed frequently; the software can be customized without programming. And ViewTouch is written specifically to exploit remote-user capabilities of the X Windows System, FreeBSD, and Linux.

Just how ‘comprehensive’ and ‘turnkey’ is Mosher’s POS  solution? One curious newspaper reporter from The Register-Guard in Oregon surveyed Mosher's wares at a downtown Eugene eating establishment called the Dive Bar & Grill.

 Waiters, she wrote, went from table to table toting electronic tablets, pressed color touch-screen buttons as their customers ordered, and, via radio waves, sent the order to the restaurant’s main computer. A ticket printed out in the kitchen, the cook grabbed it, and got to work. What the reporter witnessed was a recent addition to ViewTouch's product line, where wait-and kitchen staff gain efficiencies.

For the back office, ViewTouch software components include time, labor management, payroll, report formats for revenue, productivity, and performance analysis item by item, and a ViewTouch concept display for managers and owners. The latter is designed for restaurant managers and executives to be able to look in on every detail of regional, national, or international operations in real time and communicate with operations personnel via the Internet.

"The view that we have is to apply technology in a way that builds a virtual 'container' at the center of the business's operations," says Mosher, "one into which competence, expertise, business rules, and business experience can be accumulated and put to use." Mosher says the development premise at ViewTouch is that all of the problems and challenges of running a business are related. "The implication that cannot be avoided is that they can all be solved only in a way that views them in a comprehensive manner," he says. To find out more about the Gene Mosher story,  OPEN called on Mosher himself:

Are you a packager of both hardware and software?

MOSHER: Yes, we really don't sell just the software. ViewTouch sells the complete package of equipment, software and support services that make up a comprehensive front-to-back turnkey solution for restaurants.

Not every restaurant owner sits down at the end of the day to write software. What led to this transition from running restaurants in the 70s and 80s to running ViewTouch?  What attracted you to touch-screen technology?

MOSHER: I did build and/or operate several restaurants—six of them, in the period between 1973 and 1983. By 1978, it became clear, though, that the electronic cash register would be a short-lived product—soon to be un-invented by the PC and by Point-of-Sale software. And that’s just as the PC running POS software is soon to be un-invented by the smart wireless display.

As a former restaurant owner, you probably bear the same scars as your customers. Does this give you a special advantage in selling them POS solutions? Do you find that they appreciate the fact that you can go in and talk shop?

MOSHER: Yes, it does, and yes, they do. I can't imagine someone even pretending to develop a software solution for a vertical market in which they have not paid their dues. It is essential that software and technology address the difficulties and requirements of any business, especially the food and beverage business

You are a very small company. Are you the only person working on software development?

MOSHER: One is a framework developer who writes code and one is a smart display topologist who doesn't write code.

 How would you describe your company's growth? Steady? Rapidly growing?

MOSHER: Very slow, carefully managed, and awaiting the arrival of technology for which the concept was originally designed. Namely, that's a world with ubiquitous wireless connectivity and commodity-priced portable devices with smart displays.

Your site says ViewTouch is the original point of sale software company. Were you actually the first company to make software for POS applications?

MOSHER: First development of order-entry POS software on a PC, using an Apple and Apple floppy disk in 1978. First development of remote printing in the kitchen using an Apple Silentype in June, 1979. First development of a color-graphical user interface and touch screen in POS, with an Atari 520ST, in 1986. First development of a color-graphical user interface and touch-screen in POS for UNIX in 1995,  Linux in 1997, and FreeBSD in 1998.