M. Douglas McIlroy (original) (raw)

M. Douglas McIlroy, Adjunct Professor

Department of Computer Science
6211 Sudikoff Hall
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755
douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu
+1 603 646 1077

2003 marked my golden anniversary as a programmer. Hooked when Bob Walker introduced his numerical analysis class to Cornell's newly-arrived IBM CPC, I have ever since applied my training in engineering, physics, and math to this endlessly fascinating vocation. I had the good fortune to head a research department at Bell Labs in which Unix was born, and to work with some of the most creative talents in computing. Some things I have worked on:

• Languages and compilers: macros, Lisp, PL/I, TMG (a compiler-compiler), regular expressions; influenced Snobol, Altran, C++
• Stream processing: Unix pipes, classic coroutine sieve, power series
• Computer security
• Unix programs: spell, diff, sort, join, graph, speak, tr, tsort, calendar, echo, tee, quiz, etc.
• Cartography: map projections
• Algorithms for graphics
• Storage allocation theory and practice; first conservative garbage collector
• Theorem-proving in logic and geometry
• Documentation: making Unix manuals short and accurate

Upon retiring from Bell Labs, I moved to another happy situation, at Dartmouth as adjunct professor ofComputer Scienceand affiliate of theInstitute for Security Technology Studies. Here I have taught

• Advanced operating systems, CS108
• Information systems, CS33
• Data structures, CS15
• Logic of programming, CS188
• Programming languages, CS118

and have given guest lectures in several other courses.

Gallery

Best Webstern word squares

W A S S A I L R A C I S M C H A P S B L O C A N T E N N A E V I N C E H O U R I R U D Y S T R I N G Y P E R S O N A R R A S A X I S S E I Z U R E A S C E N T M A I N S G E N T A N N U L A R S T U C C O P E C K Y I N G R A T E T A S T E R L A Y E R E D

Dual cryptograms

  HILLARY MENTORS SILVERY VERVAIN; BINDERY  SUCCORS CORRIDA SLOGGER.
  BARRENS HOLDING GARCONS CONCEAL  WALTONS' GYPPING PINNATE GRIFFON.

Power serious: Haskell magic

  revert (0:ft) = rs where rs = 0 : 1/(ft#rs)

Pure macros as a programming language

  define(if,`if_$1(`$2',`$3')')define(if_T,`$1')define(if_F,`$2')

Tiniest C sort function?

  s(a,n)int*a;{n-->1?s(a,n),s(a+1,n),n=*a,*a=a[1],a[n>*a]=n:0;}

Basic CS reading list

Cook's Travels and Other Salesmen's Tales — Dick Karp

Publications

Bloggish and other info

ChatGPT is a lousy mathematician
An appreciation of the late Dennis Ritchie
Dartmouth's Communication Files:Interprocess IO before pipes.
Bell Labs computing history, talk transcribed by Russ Cox
Original description of Darwin, a 1961 game of survival of the fittest among programs, progenitor ofCore Wars
Source code for map projections, suffix arrays, quicksort and antiquicksort, word squares, etc.
Honors: Usenix Association Flame andSoftware Tools awards; memberNational Academy of Engineering; fellow AAAS
Biography Profile from Cornell | Dartmouth CS | Dartmouth ISTS

Extracurricular

Hanover trails, mapped by a committee I chaired.
Piseco Yacht Club
Scenes from Ho, Ghana, 2001.

February 21, 2024