RIP Tony Brooker

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TheGreenGoblin
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RIP Tony Brooker

#1 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Dec 05, 2019 5:06 pm

Tony Brooker, who has died aged 94, was a pioneer of computer programming and education. He designed and implemented the world’s first high-level programming language, at Manchester University, and was later founding professor of computer science at Essex University.
Obituary

For those who have ever programmed anything from a PROM, a computer or even a humble old VCR, there is something of Mr Brooker's palimpsest in the methodology used to do this.

Mr Brooker worked at Manchester University during the period Alan Turing was deputy director of the computing machine laboratory of Manchester University. It was said that Turing was so smart that he failed to see why people couldn't program in binary using Base 32 to do floating point arithmetic and it was left to people like Brooker et al to develop a programming language that lesser mortals could use, thus making computers such as the Manchester Mark 1 more generally useful.
Although nominally deputy director of the laboratory, Turing was so absorbed by his own research that he failed to help other people use the Manchester computer. The machine was formidably difficult to program, typically taking two weeks for a novice to get to grips with. Brooker designed a simplified programming system, the Manchester Autocode, which was introduced early in 1954. The system was fully described on two sides of foolscap, took just half a day to learn, and allowed many more casual users to get results from the machine. He later developed the Mercury Autocode for the university’s next computer.
Brooker also went on to design a language used to program/develop compilers for other languages.

The list of Manchester Computers was seminal in the development of UK computing by companies such as Ferranti and ICL.

He should be remembered alongside people like Rear Vice Admiral Grace Hopper (an American of course and inventor of COBOL and the term bug) as someone who made programming easier and more generally applicable outside scientific niches...
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

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Re: RIP Tony Brooker

#2 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Dec 05, 2019 5:51 pm

One tends to forget how long mathematical computations used to take before the developmental of digital computers and languages like Fortran, as this quote, from Nevil Shute's book "Slide Rule", describing the stress calculations involved in designing the R100 in the 1930's using human analogue methods, implies.
My own work in the calculating office led at times to a satisfaction almost amounting to a religious experience. The stress calculations for each transverse frame, for instance, required a laborious mathematical computation by a pair of calculators that lasted for two or three months before a satisfactory and true solution to the forces could be guaranteed...The forces and bending moments in the members could then be calculated by the solution of a lengthy simultaneous equation containing up to seven unknown quantities; this work usually occupied two calculators about a week, using a Fuller slide rule and working in pairs to check for arithmetical mistakes. In the solution it was usual to find a compression force in one or two of the radial wires; the whole process then had to be begun again using a different selection of wires. wires. It was usual to find a discrepancy, perhaps due to an arithmetical mistake by a tired calculator ten days before, and the calculations had to be repeated till this check was satisfied. When the deflections and the calculated loads agreed, it was not uncommon to discover that one of the wires thought to be slack was, in fact, in tension as revealed by the deflection diagrams, which meant that the two calculators had to moisten the lips and start again at the very beginning.

As I say, it produced a satisfaction almost amounting to a religious experience. After literally months of labour, having filled perhaps fifty foolscap sheets with closely pencilled figures, after many disappointments and heartaches, the truth stood revealed, real, and perfect, and unquestionable; the very truth. It did one good; one was the better for the experience. It struck me at the time that those who built the great arches of the English cathedrals in mediaeval times must have known something of our mathematics, and perhaps passed through the same experience, and I have wondered if Freemasonry has anything to do with this.
A calculation like this using Fortran could be programmed and done within minutes these days thanks to people like Brooker et al.
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

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TheGreenGoblin
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Re: RIP Tony Brooker

#3 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Dec 05, 2019 6:19 pm

Correction - Grace Hopper was a Rear Admiral and would not have relished being incorrectly ranked (or demoted). She was clearly very proud of her naval service (as she should have been).
At DEC Hopper served primarily as a goodwill ambassador. She lectured widely about the early days of computing, her career, and on efforts that computer vendors could take to make life easier for their users. She visited most of Digital's engineering facilities, where she generally received a standing ovation at the conclusion of her remarks. Although no longer a serving officer, she always wore her full Navy full dress uniform to these lectures in defiance of U.S. Department of Defense policy... She was interred with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.
Clearly a feisty old bird.

As for the bug thing well it is a bit of a myth but a good one nonetheless...

Grace Hopper
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

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