RIP: Daniel Bobrow

[Stan Sieler]

Re:


> From: Tony Aiuto <tony.aiuto at gmail.com>
> Subject: RIP: Daniel Bobrow
>
> http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.
> aspx?n=daniel-bobrow&pid=184794881


I worked with Danny for about a year, around 1974, sometime after UCSD put
its B6700 onto the ARPAnet (we were something like the 35th computer).

The AI community needed a BBNLISP with more addressing space than a DEC-10
could provide, so they came to the king of virtual addressing: the
Burroughs.
We got the contract to implement BBNLISP, and Danny came to oversee.

I remember him typing on a terminal, linking UCSD to about 10 other
computers
on the ARPANET, finally linked back to us ... sending a message to himself.
He was demonstrating the lag time each computer added :)

IIRC, sometime during the project, BBNLISP was renamed INTERLISP.  I still
have the wonderful manual, with the great artwork on the cover.  Warren
Teitelman (the author) doesn't have his name on the cover.  But, the bottom
portion has a guy is operating a meat grinder, with the input being the
letters of "reference manual" in random order, and the output being
"reference manual".  Danny explained that Warren Teitelman hadn't gotten
the joke :)

Danny was funny, quick witted, friendly ... RIP.

Oh, UCSD LISP?  About a week before we released it, DEC (or BBN?) had a
breakthrough and increased the addressability of their virtual memory,
obviating the need for our version :(

Stan Sieler

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