On this, the 90th Anniversary of Ken Iverson's birth, I want to share with you my one and only "Ken" story.
Dr. Fred Brooks talks about Ken Iverson Recently, I had the pleasure of working for Catherine Lathwell when she interviewed Dr. Fred Brooks for her documentary film "A Programming Language" (http://www.aprogramminglanguage.com ). The interview took place on the campus of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the subject was Ken Iverson (the Harvard years) and the roots of APL. As many of you may know, Ken Iverson and Dr. Brooks received their PhD's at Harvard in the mid 50's under the direction of Professor Howard Aiken. For the years 1955-56, Dr. Brooks served as Ken's teaching assistant for the course "Automatic Data Processing". This course was one of, if not the first, ever taught on this subject anywhere in the world, and certainly the first in the United States. As they developed course material for the class, Ken began to formalize the notation that came to be known as APL, the "the blackboard version" as Eugene McDonnell once so aptly put it. Their collaboration ultimately resulted in the publication of two books, Ken Iverson's "A Programming Language", in 1962 and "Automatic Data Processing" by Iverson and Brooks, published in 1963. They also became lifelong friends during this period. Dr. Brooks gave a fantastic interview, covering subjects such as: life in the Harvard Comp Lab, the influence of Dr. Howard Aiken on his students, the origins of "A Programming Language", and "Automatic Data Processing". He also covered some of the later years at the IBM Research center, and talked about Ken's Turing Award in 1979, as well as a look back at the historical significance of Ken's life's work. Among the many interesting comments and observations Dr. Brooks had during the interview, one of my favorites was that he and Ken were probably the only two Turing Award winners to ever share an office (Dr. Brooks won the Turing Award in 1999). Dr. Brooks is a wonderful guy, with an infectious laugh, and as sharp, knowledgeable and gracious as one can be. It was truly an honor to hear him talk about Ken, and it gave me a rare perspective on the origins of APL and J. After the interview, Catherine asked Dr. Brook's what he thought of her project. He responded that he thought it was a great idea, and that it will be very important for the historical record. He also noted that he is one of the few people left that can tell this story. I took a series of photos after the interview, which can be found here: http://goo.gl/DU8gF . Finally, I have learned a few important things during this trip, 1) documentary filmmaking is HARD, and 2) it is also EXPENSIVE! Catherine has put untold hours into making this film, with many more to go before she is finished. It is truly a labor of love, and from what I have seen so far, it is going to be a great piece of work. I urge the J community (and the array language community at large) to please visit Catherine's website, http://www.aprogramminglanguage.com , and make a donation for the film. It is the holiday season after all! Best wishes, and Happy Holidays to everyone. Ken Lettow ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
