RIP Dr. Fred Brooks, OS-360 and "The Mythical Man Month"
The NY Times is carrying an obit for Dr. Brooks, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/23/technology/frederick-p-brooks-jr-dead.html
Dr. Brooks had a wide-ranging career that included creating the computer science department at the University of North Carolina and leading influential research in computer graphics and virtual reality.
But he is best known for being one of the technical leaders of IBM's 360 computer project in the 1960s. At a time when smaller rivals like Burroughs, Univac and NCR were making inroads, it was a hugely ambitious undertaking. Fortune magazine, in an article with the headline "IBM's $5,000,000,000 Gamble," described it as a "bet the company" venture.
...But during his years at North Carolina, he also turned to computer graphics and virtual reality, seeing it as an emerging and important field. He led research efforts that experts say included techniques for fast and realistic presentation of images and applications for studying molecules in biology.
"The impact of his work in computer graphics was enormous," said Patrick Hanrahan, a professor at Stanford University and a fellow Turing Award winner. "Fred Brooks was a thought leader way ahead of his time."
While his career spanned a range of interests, there was a common theme, Henry Fuchs, a professor at the University of North Carolina and a longtime colleague, said in an interview. Whether designing a new family of computers used across the economy or helping biologists explore molecules to develop new drugs, Dr. Fuchs said, Dr. Brooks saw the role of computer scientists as "toolsmiths."
"Fred's view," he said, "was that computer scientists are mainly tool builders to help others do their jobs better."
A good friend had Dr. Brooks for a PhD advisor and I met him once at a conference, super nice guy. We had been working on different approaches to computer force-feedback (now gussied up and called "haptics") and had a few minutes of good fun trading notes.
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