Path: csiph.com!news.mixmin.net!eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Fred P. Brooks, 1931-2022 Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2022 18:31:12 -1000 Organization: Wheeler&Wheeler Lines: 30 Message-ID: <87pmd5vzan.fsf@localhost> References: <11372744-628f-4a7a-be20-2dfb2b71900bn@googlegroups.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Info: reader01.eternal-september.org; posting-host="6ea315e0c5be93606910ec29a07dd907"; logging-data="2612825"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+5n08pyleyGNE2XaE1vg5wGxjjrPXAeE8=" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/28.1 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:kBu3TsrWOg95lVKSoN0G66TFy2I= sha1:DyxRYg2TTs6QuzW3gx+8OntZd4w= Xref: csiph.com alt.folklore.computers:222864 In Memoriam: Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. - a Personal Recollection https://circleid.com/posts/20221119-in-memoriam-frederick-p-brooks-jr-a-personal-recollection Frederick P. Brooks Jr., Computer Design Innovator, Dies at 91. He was a lead designer of the computers that cemented IBM's dominance for decades. He later wrote a book on software engineering that became a quirky classic. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/23/technology/frederick-p-brooks-jr-dead.html RIP Fred 'Mythical Man-Month' Brooks: IBM guru of software project management. Turing Award winner who helped spread the eight-bit byte https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/28/fred_mythical_man_month_brooks/ The most important single decision I ever made was to change the IBM 360 series from a 6-bit byte to an 8-bit byte, thereby enabling the use of lowercase letters. That change propagated everywhere. ... 8bit ... then there is ebcdic fiasco (instead of ascii) BCD was supposed to go to 8-bit ASCII ... but (comedy? of) circumstances, it went to EBCDIC instead (gone 404, but lives on at wayback machine): https://web.archive.org/web/20180513184025/http://www.bobbemer.com/P-BIT.HTM https://web.archive.org/web/20180513184025/http://www.bobbemer.com/ASCII.HTM https://web.archive.org/web/20180513184025/http://www.bobbemer.com/BACSLASH.HTM https://web.archive.org/web/20180513184025/http://www.bobbemer.com/FATHEROF.HTM https://web.archive.org/web/20180513184025/http://www.bobbemer.com/HISTORY.HTM -- virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970