Leonard H. Tower Jr. | |
|---|---|
 Len Tower wearing League for Programming Freedom and "No Smoking" badges (c. 1996) | |
| Born | June 17, 1949 |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | MIT, Brentwood HS |
| Known for | GNU diff, gcc |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Software designer, biologist |
| Institutions | MIT, Free Software Foundation |
Leonard "Len" H. Tower Jr. (born June 17, 1949) is a computer programmer, most notable for being an original co-author of gcc and GNU diff. He is one of the founding board members of the Free Software Foundation.[1]
Academic career edit
In 1971, Tower received a B.S. in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[2] During that time he was Business Manager at The Tech, the student newspaper.[3]
GNU project edit
As a member of the GNU project, Tower was a programmer who also did some administrative tasks;[4] he managed mailing lists, newsgroups, and requests for information.[5][6] For the GNU C compiler (now known as GNU Compiler Collection), he wrote register transfer language generator and definitions, and the VAX machine description.[7] Tower was also one of the five creators of GNU diff, a file comparison utility.[8] During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Tower spoke at USENIX conferences as the official representative of the FSF.[9]
League for Programming Freedom edit
Tower was an early member of the League for Programming Freedom. Through 1991, Tower was one of the organization's two most active speakers, along with Richard Stallman.[10]
See also edit
Free software portalReferences edit
- ^ The first GNU's Bulletin ("GNU'S Bulletin, Volume 1, No.1". Free Software Foundation. 1986. Retrieved 2007-08-11.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help)), indicates this list of people as round[ing] out FSF's board of directors. - ^ "Award for free software kicks off 'One world, one net' conference". 28 October 1998. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
- ^ The Tech MIT student newspaper masthead, 15 February 1972, page 4.
- ^ Rubin, Paul (June 1987). "GNU's Who". GNU's Bulletin. 1 (1). Free Software Foundation. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
- ^ Tuttle, J. (February 1988). "GNU's Who". GNU's Bulletin. 1 (4). Free Software Foundation. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Goldstein, S. (January 1997). "GNU's Who". GNU's Bulletin. 1 (22). Free Software Foundation. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Stallman, Richard M. (2001) "Contributors to GCC," in Using and Porting the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) for gcc version 2.95 (Cambridge, Mass.: Free Software Foundation)
- ^ Tower, Leonard H., et al. (2001) "AUTHORS" file, revision 1.3, GNU diff and patch utilities (Cambridge, Mass.: Free Software Foundation)
- ^ Smallwood, Kevin C. (30 December 1991) "Updated BOF Schedule for San Francisco USENIX Conference," comp.org.usenix USENET posting;
- ^ MacPhee, Spike R. (November 1991). "Speaking Volunteers". Programming Freedom. 1 (1). League for Programming Freedom. Archived from the original on 2007-03-10. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
External links edit
{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. --> | NAME = Tower Jr., Leonard H. | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = American computer programmer | DATE OF BIRTH = 1949-06-17 | PLACE OF BIRTH = [[Astoria, Queens|Astoria]], [[Queens]], [[New York City|New York]], [[New York]], [[United States|U.S.]] | DATE OF DEATH = | PLACE OF DEATH = }}