Some terms (and in this I include brand names) are based on people’s names, either the full names or abbreviations or other variants — czar, Mirandize, Ford, watt, HP, and so on. Some of those terms are used in relation to the programming or use of computers (though they need not be used solely in relation to computers); HP is one. Some of those, unlike HP, are based on the names of people who were not themselves personally involved in the development of modern computers, whether as technicians, investors, owners, managers, or otherwise.
Who are the four people whose names are used in four such terms that are most commonly used in relation to the programming or use of computers (again, whether brand names or otherwise)? Obviously, there’ll be disagreement about how common such use is, but I have four in mind that are indeed pretty common, and I’d like to see what you folks can come up with.
Again,
- The person’s name had to be used within the term, whether it’s a full first or last name, or an abbreviations or other variant.
- The person had to be not personally involved in the development of modern computers (so keep Michael Dell, for instance, out of it).
- I’m focusing on use today, not in the past.
Alan Turing, for instance, doesn’t qualify, because he was involved in the development of modern computers, and because the Turing Test is also at this point generally used in relation to computing theory, and not commonly used in relation to the programming or use of computers. Herman Hollerith, of the FORTRAN H notation, would qualify in principle, since Hollerith did his work with devices that are not modern computers, but my sense is that this particular code has long been used only rarely, even among FORTRAN users.
mnarayan says:
Ada, Pascal, Haskell/Curry, Chomsky Hierarchy
Quote
October 25, 2009, 2:40 amJohn Armstrong says:
Ada Lovelace, Haskell Curry, and Noam Chomsky all worked heavily on the foundations of computation/computability theory, and algorithmic programming. But Blaise Pascal was safely before computers’ time. Try again, mnarayan
Quote
October 25, 2009, 2:59 amDavid Carroll says:
George Boole
Quote
October 25, 2009, 3:00 amStating the obvious says:
One of them is George Boole (Boolean logic)
Too late–somebody beat me to it.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 3:11 amDewb says:
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 3:13 amDavid Carroll says:
5 years ago I would have said Karl Gauss, but nobody needs to deGauss a flatscreen display.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 3:33 amChris Lawrence says:
In the 1980s and 90s there were “Bernoulli drives” named after the Bernoulli brothers. But not so famous these days, kind of like Gauss.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 3:42 amSean Gleeson says:
The Macintosh is named, indirectly, after John McIntosh, the farmer who in 1811 discovered the McIntosh variety of apple. In 1979, Jaff Raskin originally wanted to name the new Apple computer the McIntosh (after the apple, not directly after John McIntosh) but had to change the spelling for legal reasons.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 4:18 amGreg Conen says:
If Hollerith would qualify, I would think Lovelace would. Concur on Boole and Pascal.
Also John McIntosh.
Edit: Crud. Beaten to the punch.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 4:23 amTim says:
I don’t see how Michael Dell was involved in the modern development of computers. He figured out how to compete and make them more affordable for everyone, but he hardly developed anything, just exploited mass production to reduce marginal cost.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 4:24 amAllan says:
Linus Torvald — developer of the Linux kernel
Quote
October 25, 2009, 4:29 amRegolith says:
The Python programming language and the Idle programming environment would probably count. Python was named after the Monty Python troupe, and the Idle programming environment was named for Eric Idle.
Wouldn’t count, since he was directly involved in computer science — i.e. he developed the kernal, and didn’t simply have it named after him.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 5:33 amStolidus says:
There is a technique common in functional programming languages called currying, named after the logician Haskell Curry, as are the Haskell and Curry programming languages.
The FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) is a common algorithm used in modern computing, named after Joseph Fourier.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 6:13 amStolidus says:
Also, although this probably wouldn’t be considered current usage any more, a “winchester drive” was still a common term for a hard drive back when I started programming, which was an indirect reference to Oliver Winchester (of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company). This was due to an early hard disk storage unit (the IBM 3340) which had twin 30 MB disk units, and which had been given a code name of Winchester (a reference to the Winchester .30–30 rifle).
Quote
October 25, 2009, 6:48 amChuck says:
Algorithm (Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmi)
Boolean (George Boole)
=======================
I don’t know what the other two are. I often refer to FFTs.
I don’t think Pascal is used enough these days to qualify.
Chuck
Quote
October 25, 2009, 7:02 amBT says:
Mouse: Mickey Mouse.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 7:07 amJaja says:
Von Neumann
Quote
October 25, 2009, 7:25 amFub says:
Recap and additions:
Blaise Pascal, as noted by mnarayan at 2:40 am.
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, by Dewb at 3:13 am.
Joseph Fourier, as noted by Stolidus at 6:13 am.
Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (780–850), from whose name we get “algorithm” and the language ALGOL.
Agner Krarup Erlang — Erlang, the programming language.
Jan Łukasiewicz almost qualifies, but only his nationality is used in the common term “Reverse Polish Notation”.
Nicolas Bourbaki, who never existed, is named in the Bourbaki-Witt theorem, used in computability theory and domain theory.
Haskell Curry worked on Eniac, and so may be disqualified, modulo “modern computers”.
As noted by Prof. Volokh, Herman Hollerith may likewise be disqualified, or not. I’ve used H notation in FORTRAN II though.
Likewise, remotely disqualified, or not, Ada Lovelace and George Boole.
Plato, and I believe Aristotle, have been namesakes for various programming languages or projects as well.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 7:44 amGlenn Bowen says:
Not exactly one of your more killer puzzles, Professor.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 8:36 amAdam Maas says:
Pierre-Simon Laplace — The Laplace transform, which is related to the Fourier Transform, is also used commonly in computer science.
Rene Descartes — Cartesian co-ordinate systems are also commonly used and referred to as such. Much graphics programming uses Cartesian coordinates as they map directly to a bitmapped display.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 9:27 amPeteP says:
Gordon Moore.
His name is in common use in such phrases as ‘You need Moore memory to run this program’, and ‘You have Moore data than your disk can hold’, etc.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 9:30 amDavid says:
“Herman Hollerith, of the FORTRAN H notation, would qualify in principle, since Hollerith did his work with devices that are not modern computers, but my sense is that this particular code has long been used only rarely, even among FORTRAN users.”
Hm. And here *I* thought Hollerith invented the Hollerith card! :-)
Of course, no one has used those since I was in college...
Quote
October 25, 2009, 9:34 amEugene Volokh says:
David: I used punch cards in the late 1970s, but I don’t think I ever heard them called Hollerith cards; I think the term had probably fallen out of use back then, even before the cards themselves fell out of use.
Mnarayan, Dewb, Sean Gleeson, David Carroll: Pascal, Hertz, McIntosh, and Boole are what I had in mind.
Chuck: I didn’t know about the origin of “algorithm”! That definitely makes the cut. (I checked the OED, and it confirms that the term comes from “Arab. al-Khowrazm, the native of Khwrazm (Khiva), surname of the Arab mathematician Abu Ja’far Mohammed Ben Musa, who flourished early in the 9th c., and through the translation of whose work on Algebra, the Arabic numerals became generally known in Europe.”)
I think the other terms are materially less commonly used than my initial four plus “algorithm,” but that’s just my sense of the matter — I might well be mistaken.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 9:48 amscattergood says:
If Hertz makes the list, why not volt? From Wikipedia:
Voltage settings and vcore ratings are used by overclockers all the time....
Quote
October 25, 2009, 10:47 amEugene Volokh says:
Scattergood: I think “hertz” is more often used than “volts” because it’s a common term for describing the speed of processors; as a result, it often appears even in ads for computers (though in the abbreviations Ghz and Mhz). Voltage is of course also important, and sometimes discussed, but my sense is that it’s referred to much less often than processor speed.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 10:55 amMalvolio says:
King Harald I of Sweden, Harald Bluetooth Gormson.
Boole probably claims first position, because software developers invoke his name and work every day. Ada and Pascal have fallen largely into desuetude; Hertz and Volta are basically auxiliary.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 11:09 amEugene Volokh says:
Malvolio: Wow! I at first thought your Bluetooth item was a joke, but some searching suggests that the word does indeed come from the king’s name. That should definitely be on any long list, and perhaps even on a top-five short list (depending on how you rank its frequency of use today against, for instance, Pascal).
Quote
October 25, 2009, 11:15 amDave N says:
What about Norton and McAfee, whose founders’ names are synonymous with anti-virus programs?
Quote
October 25, 2009, 11:42 amSean Gleeson says:
Wait. You mean the algorithm wasn’t named after Al Gore?
Quote
October 25, 2009, 12:06 pmToday's Tom Sawyer says:
No duh. Everyone has seen the man; he doesn’t have any rhythm.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 12:24 pmMark N. says:
Apple’s Newton, one of the first PDAs, fits the description, though admittedly I would place it outside the top 4. Getting to somewhat more obscure terms, Apple contributed yet another one, the programming language “Dylan”, which might be the leading example of a computer-programming term named after a musician.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 12:47 pmSasha Volokh says:
How about Eudora?
Quote
October 25, 2009, 1:27 pmSasha Volokh says:
(The Eudora idea was from Hanah.)
Quote
October 25, 2009, 1:29 pmErik in Colo. says:
Godwin’s Law?
Quote
October 25, 2009, 1:30 pmCan't find a good name says:
Thomas Jefferson — for http://thomas.loc.gov
Quote
October 25, 2009, 2:39 pmMalvolio says:
That was the explanation given to the press at the initial announcement of Bluetooth.
There’s the (fairly unknown) Eiffel programming language, named indirectly after Gustave Eiffel. Even more obscure is Sather, a derivative of Eiffel, which is named after Sather Tower, which was named after Julia Sather.
There’s Caesar rotation, a crude encryption technique that used to be very popular (named after Julius Caesar, who, according to Suetonius, ordered its use).
Officially at least, “Dylan” is short for “Dynamic Language”.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 2:58 pmHelen says:
My contribution was also going to be “Winchester,” but I guess you have to be of a certain age to appreciate it.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 5:37 pmDavid Carroll says:
What about Capt. Edward A. Murphy? If he never worked on computers, he would count.
Recap: Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī / George Boole / John McIntosh / Harald Bluetooth Gormson.
Not too many people use Pascal any more, I think. As an educational language I believe Java has superseded it.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 6:07 pmtraveler496 says:
Pascal invented the first mechanical calculator. I think that the Pascal programming language was named in recognition of this contribution to the development of computing, though a real quick scan turned up nothing more authoritative than this quote from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-pascal.htm:
Quote
October 25, 2009, 6:43 pmJohn Moore says:
I started using them in the ‘60s and into the early ‘70s. They were occasionally called Hollerith cards.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 9:18 pmMichael Kleber says:
I think this is beat by Django, a widespread Python web serving framework named after jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.
Quote
October 25, 2009, 10:10 pmConnie says:
Cerf ==> serfing the web
Quote
October 26, 2009, 5:55 amConnie says:
Uh, make that “surfing.”
Quote
October 26, 2009, 7:42 amuh_clem says:
Jimmy Webb.
Songwriter famous for writing “Up, Up and Away”, “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”, “Wichita Lineman”, “Galveston” and “MacArthur Park”
I’m still not entirely sure why they named the internet after him....
Quote
October 26, 2009, 10:14 amgreg says:
If you recall the old computer software store Babbage’s (now Gamestop), it was named after Charles Babbage, who developed the idea of the difference engine in the 1800s. At least, if we’re assuming “modern” computers means electrical and not mechanical, because mechanical would disqualify Pascal who developed a mechanical calculator.
Also, the Tandy name, applied to a series of computers in the mid 80s through RadioShack, was from Dave L Tandy, who started the Tandy Corporation, which was originally a leather-goods company.
Quote
October 26, 2009, 10:17 amColin says:
Beyond Boole, there are a few other pre-digital-computer logicians whose names show up more or less often in computer discourse. “Quine” is pretty common — Willard Van Orman Quine’s name has come to mean “a program that print out its own source code”. A little more obscure: “Skolemizing”, after Thoralf Skolem, is the procedure of replacing constants by (canonically zero-ary) functions that return the values of those constants. “Skolemization” is endemic to theoretical discussions of functional programming, but not uncommon in that context.
Quote
October 26, 2009, 3:38 pmNickM says:
I’m surprised no one has mentioned General Failure. :-D
Nick
Quote
October 26, 2009, 5:00 pmEli Rabett says:
Especially for the conspirators, hard disks used to be called Winchesters, because the first one was Model 3030
Quote
October 26, 2009, 7:37 pmMichael Wagner says:
Including Pascal may show your age. :-)
I am not sure that “Pascal” qualifies as “commonly used” anymore. I think that its last bastion — as a teaching language — fell to Java a decade ago.
I was ready to guess “boole“and “algorithm” — but the etymology of “Winchester drives” is cool to know.
I was surprised at the number of comments that ignored your second qualification.
Quote
October 26, 2009, 11:18 pmAllan says:
The second qualification was ambiguous. “The person had to be not personally involved in the development of modern computers.” That was defined as “personally involved in the development of modern computers, whether as technicians, investors, owners, managers, or otherwise.” Michael Dell was given as an example, as was HP.
I took the limitation to mean those involved in the hardware development, not software.
Quote
October 27, 2009, 2:28 pm