Bob Bemer, Computer Pioneer, Father of ASCII and the ESC Sequence Passed away....

Bob Bemer, Computer Pioneer,
Passed Away This Week at Age 84.



See links:

Posted on the home page of

www.smecc.org



a.. At Lockheed, he devised the first computerized 3-D dynamic
perspective, prelude to today's computer animation.

b.. At IBM, he developed
a.. PRINT I (the first load-and-go computer method),
b.. FORTRANSIT (the first major proof of intercomputer portability, and
the second FORTRAN compiler),
c.. Commercial Translator (a COBOL input), and
d.. XTRAN (an ALGOL predecessor).

c.. In 1957 March he was the first to describe commercial timesharing
publicly, which evolved into the Worldwide Web.

d.. In 1959 his internal IBM memo proposed word processing.

e.. The Identification and Environment Divisions of COBOL are due to him,
as is the Picture Clause, which could have avoided the Year 2000 problem if
used correctly.

f.. He coined the terms "COBOL", "CODASYL", and "Software Factory".

g.. He was the major force in developing ASCII (contributing 10
characters -- ESCape (see that key), FS, GS, RS, US, {, }, [, ], and the
backslash).
He invented the escape sequence and registry concept, and is called the
"Father of ASCII".

h.. He wrote the original scope and program of work for international and
national computer standards, and chaired the international committee for
programming language standards for eleven years.

i.. As editor of the Honeywell Computer Journal (the first A4-size
publication
[1971] in the U.S.) he innovated fiche-of-the-issue and multimedia
publishing.

j.. He is recognized as the first person in the world to publish warnings
of the Year 2000 problem -- first in 1971, and again in 1979.

k.. And..... more! go to his site to learn more.....

--
Thanks Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC

Please check our web site at
http://www.smecc.org
to see other engineering fields, communications and computation stuff we
buy, and by all means when in Arizona drop in and see us.

address:

coury house / smecc
5802 w palmaire ave
glendale az 85301