Oh my! It is so sad to have lost Roger. He is missed. I offer two quips to the J community. One on his skilled programming and the other on his being a wonderful human being with a kind sense of humor. Forgive me if my memories are incorrect, but here goes. I believe both Roger and I gave papers at APL 95. https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/206913 Remember, this was 1995, about the time of my first version of FVJ. One was greatly challenged to create a 1000x1000 image on a PC, let alone do serious processing. My paper was basically a gripe about where J had wonderful primitives to express automata and image processing but one needed to find work arounds (in J) to be efficient enough in space in time. I think my talk (maybe not the paper) presented 4 examples of where I needed work arounds (remember conference talks on transparencies?). Roger attended my talk. After I had flown home, I received a note from Roger saying that he had fixed 3 of my complaints on the plane ride home and the 4th took a tad longer. Roger's programming skill was and is a great gift to the J community. In that same era, 1997, my family (4 young children, wife and I) was hosted for a U. Waterloo Sabbatical at Ken's Kiln Farm in between the university and Toronto. So Roger and Ken had several opportunities to interact with our family. A few years later, Roger had a family of his own and we met at another conference -- I can't date it. But Roger chastised me for not telling him how wonderful it is to have a family. Roger had a kind sense of humor and deeply loved his family. Rest in Peace Roger. Best regards, Cliff
On Tue, Oct 19, 2021 at 11:20 AM ethiejiesa via Programming <[email protected]> wrote: > > Man. Meeting The Hui was one of the top items I had on my bucket list... > > It approaches midnight here as I sit and contemplate the vastness of Roger's > causal ripples, ever expanding into spacetime. Listening to the > recapitulations > of his peers, indeed many of these ripples sound more like monumental > swells: valued as a darn good human being; admired as a programmer par > excellence; appreciated for solidary and conscientious contributions to the > J/APL community. > > To borrow an expression from Terry Tao, he surely must have been an extremal > point in the convex hull of all intellectuals. > > I would loved to have a conversation with you, Roger. > F*** cancer. > > My condolences and heart go out to his family and friends. > > > Eric Iverson <[email protected]> wrote: > > Roger Hui passed away peacefully on Saturday afternoon, October 16, 2021. > > > > He had a several year struggle with cancer and was in a hospice with his > > hands held by his wife Stella and their children Rachel and Nicholas. > > > > Roger created J with Ken and made major contributions to APL. But all that > > has been farthest from my mind the last 24 hours. What I think about is the > > joy I saw when watching Ken and Roger together. I remember Ken telling me > > how Roger asked if it would be OK to bring his girlfriend to dinner with > > Ken and Jean. And how they were surprised by the coincidence that her name > > was Ken's mother's name. No one was surprised by the integrity and > > soundness of the family that he and Stella made. > > > > Yes, Roger was a coder extraordinaire. But what was important is that he > > was a rock solid good person. His calm and measured way in life and in his > > last years should be a model to all. > > > > (Roger would have insisted that any comments go to chat) > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
