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In Memorium: Richard Cornford

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  In Memorium: Richard Cornford "Michael Haufe (TNO)" <tno@thenewobjective.com> - 2021-05-10 17:31 -0700
    Re: In Memorium: Richard Cornford Rob Gr <blattothesplot@gmail.com> - 2021-05-11 03:06 -0700
      Re: In Memorium: Richard Cornford Rebecca H <rebeccamh166@gmail.com> - 2021-05-11 05:32 -0700
    Re: In Memorium: Richard Cornford Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2021-05-11 15:35 +0200
    Re: In Memorium: Richard Cornford John G Harris <niam@jghnorth.org.uk.invalid> - 2021-05-12 18:10 +0100
    Re: In Memorium: Richard Cornford Krist t t t t t t t t t t tjan Rob a a a a a am <he1983912@gmail.com> - 2022-07-03 08:22 -0700
    Re: In Memorium: Richard Cornford Kritsjan Robam <he1983912@gmail.com> - 2022-07-03 08:28 -0700

#40037 — In Memorium: Richard Cornford

I just head from Asen Bozhilov that Richard Cornford has passed away [1]

For those who don't know, Richard contributed significantly to the JavaScript ecosystem and body of knowledge during the wild-west days of the web.

His personal website has been saved to the internet archive:

<https://web.archive.org/web/20180722214324/http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/cornford/>

You can see his years of contributions to this group here:

<https://groups.google.com/g/comp.lang.javascript/search?q=author%3ARichard%20author%3ACornford>

He was one of the major maintainers of the original FAQ:

<https://www.jibbering.com/faq/>

and much more.

If you would like to share your favorite posts, articles, and more by Richard that impacted you it would be appreciated.

My favorite article was his discovery of a means to implement private static and protected members in ES3:

<https://web.archive.org/web/20180723025401/http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/cornford/js_info/private_static.html>

People take for granted how easy web development is today. Those of us who were doing it in the late 90s and early 2000s had to deal with significantly different and incompatible DOM implementations, and basic language and browser functionality not being available so you had to roll your own. Richard Cornford's contributions helped map out this new space and provide some stability upon which to rely and build upon.

[1] <https://twitter.com/abozhilov/status/1391491266962153474>

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#40038

On Tuesday, May 11, 2021 at 10:31:51 AM UTC+10, Michael Haufe (TNO) wrote:
> I just head from Asen Bozhilov that Richard Cornford has passed away [1] 

That is truely sad. Richard was one of the most knowledgable and eloquent contributors to comp.lang.javascript in the days of Usenet. His explanations of javascript features and behaviours was always clear, concise and correct. 

I have a small file I called "Cornford Quotes" that contains gems like the following, which was in response to a question about best practice:

> Whenever anyone proposes a best practice, it is a good idea to require that they state a justification for that practice, in such a form that it is understandable, reasoned and convincing. Otherwise, what you are reading is probably just a personal opinion, in a world where the majority of commentators on browser scripting are more or less ill-informed/uninformed and/or suffering from misconceptions.

Vale Richard.

-- 
RobG

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#40039

Thank you for your kind words. I am his niece and can say that we were very sad and shocked to lose him at age 55. I saw some tweets quoting him and was pleased to then discover his articles and contributions in this community. JS was one of his main passions along with art and design, and most recently he had been combining interest in coding and design via CAD for 3D printing. I'm glad he could share an interest with you all. :)

All the best
Rebecca

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#40040

Michael Haufe (TNO) wrote:

> I just head from Asen Bozhilov that Richard Cornford has passed away [1]

I can only hope it was not because of COVID-19.  Too many good people have 
been lost too early this way already :-(
 
> For those who don't know, Richard contributed significantly to the
> JavaScript ecosystem and body of knowledge during the wild-west days of
> the web.

He had an incredible patience, and was very good at, explaining things.
I would not be where I am today in computer science without his articles 
here.

In fact, this entire newsgroup contributed greatly to my understanding in 
those days (I joined here around 2000, and had an incredible learning curve 
in the 2000s), which is why I thanked its regulars in general – and that 
would certainly include Richard Cornford – in the preface of my 2011/2012 
bachelor’s thesis.  In hindsight, his long and well-worded technical 
articles here probably have influenced me in choosing ECMAScript 
implementations as its topic.  See also my (this time explicitly chosen) 
signature.
 
> His personal website has been saved to the internet archive:
> 
> 
<https://web.archive.org/web/20180722214324/http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/cornford/>
> 
> You can see his years of contributions to this group here:
> 
> 
<https://groups.google.com/g/comp.lang.javascript/search?q=author%3ARichard%20author%3ACornford>
> 
> He was one of the major maintainers of the original FAQ:
> 
> <https://www.jibbering.com/faq/>

No, I do not think so.  The original FAQ was *maintained* by Jim Ley, which 
is why it is still available on his Web site.  However, Richard Cornford was 
one of the main *contributors* to the FAQ, simply because he posted a lot of 
very good articles that then made it to the FAQ or FAQ Notes.
 
> and much more.
>  
> If you would like to share your favorite posts, articles, and more by
> Richard that impacted you it would be appreciated.

His contributions are, and will be, of course preserved in and (as long as 
Google Groups exists) through the new FAQ (which for some reason nobody 
wishes to refer or contribute to :-( ):

<http://PointedEars.de/faq>

I think I also have saved several of his articles in my local archive.  
Hopefully I can post the Message-IDs later.

I grieve with you.


\\//, PointedEars
-- 
> If you get a bunch of authors […] that state the same "best practices"
> in any programming language, then you can bet who is wrong or right...
Not with javascript. Nonsense propagates like wildfire in this field.
  -- Richard Cornford, comp.lang.javascript, 2011-11-14

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#40046

On Mon, 10 May 2021 17:31:47 -0700 (PDT), "Michael Haufe (TNO)"
<tno@thenewobjective.com> wrote:

>I just head from Asen Bozhilov that Richard Cornford has passed away [1]
  <snip>

I remember him as someone who obviously knew what he was talking about
and was always polite with it. It's sad to hear he's no longer with
us.

  John

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#40960

That is a very sad news.
Hopefully he will enjoy his afterlife !



*****************************************************
Kritsjan Robam
Phone: 372 5 3 9 0 0 6 6 0



Michael Haufe (TNO) kirjutas Teisipäev, 11. mai 2021 kl 02:31:51 UTC+2:
> I just head from Asen Bozhilov that Richard Cornford has passed away [1] 
> 
> For those who don't know, Richard contributed significantly to the JavaScript ecosystem and body of knowledge during the wild-west days of the web. 
> 
> His personal website has been saved to the internet archive: 
> 
> <https://web.archive.org/web/20180722214324/http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/cornford/> 
> 
> You can see his years of contributions to this group here: 
> 
> <https://groups.google.com/g/comp.lang.javascript/search?q=author%3ARichard%20author%3ACornford> 
> 
> He was one of the major maintainers of the original FAQ: 
> 
> <https://www.jibbering.com/faq/> 
> 
> and much more. 
> 
> If you would like to share your favorite posts, articles, and more by Richard that impacted you it would be appreciated. 
> 
> My favorite article was his discovery of a means to implement private static and protected members in ES3: 
> 
> <https://web.archive.org/web/20180723025401/http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/cornford/js_info/private_static.html> 
> 
> People take for granted how easy web development is today. Those of us who were doing it in the late 90s and early 2000s had to deal with significantly different and incompatible DOM implementations, and basic language and browser functionality not being available so you had to roll your own. Richard Cornford's contributions helped map out this new space and provide some stability upon which to rely and build upon. 
> 
> [1] <https://twitter.com/abozhilov/status/1391491266962153474>

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#40961

That is a very sad news.
Hopefully he will enjoy his afterlife !



*****************************************************
Kritsjan Robam
Phone: 372 5 3 9 0 0 6 6 0

Michael Haufe (TNO) kirjutas Teisipäev, 11. mai 2021 kl 02:31:51 UTC+2:
> I just head from Asen Bozhilov that Richard Cornford has passed away [1] 
> 
> For those who don't know, Richard contributed significantly to the JavaScript ecosystem and body of knowledge during the wild-west days of the web. 
> 
> His personal website has been saved to the internet archive: 
> 
> <https://web.archive.org/web/20180722214324/http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/cornford/> 
> 
> You can see his years of contributions to this group here: 
> 
> <https://groups.google.com/g/comp.lang.javascript/search?q=author%3ARichard%20author%3ACornford> 
> 
> He was one of the major maintainers of the original FAQ: 
> 
> <https://www.jibbering.com/faq/> 
> 
> and much more. 
> 
> If you would like to share your favorite posts, articles, and more by Richard that impacted you it would be appreciated. 
> 
> My favorite article was his discovery of a means to implement private static and protected members in ES3: 
> 
> <https://web.archive.org/web/20180723025401/http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/cornford/js_info/private_static.html> 
> 
> People take for granted how easy web development is today. Those of us who were doing it in the late 90s and early 2000s had to deal with significantly different and incompatible DOM implementations, and basic language and browser functionality not being available so you had to roll your own. Richard Cornford's contributions helped map out this new space and provide some stability upon which to rely and build upon. 
> 
> [1] <https://twitter.com/abozhilov/status/1391491266962153474>

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