Doug McIlroy

M. Douglas McIlroy
Department of Computer Science
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755
doug@research.bell-labs.com
doug@cs.dartmouth.edu

Engineer, mathematician, and programmer, I have had the good fortune to head the research department where 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, PL/I designer, Lisp, regular expressions; influenced Snobol, Altran, C++
Stream processing: Unix pipes, classic coroutine sieve, power series
Computer security
Text- and data-processing utilities: spell, diff, sort, join, graph, speak, etc.
Cartography: map projecions
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

Gallery

Ring of fire

Jerusalem trefoil

Way to go

      R A C I S M         W A S S A I L 
      E V I N C E         A N T E N N A 
      P E R S O N         S T R I N G Y 
      A S C E N T         S E I Z U R E 
      S T U C C O         A N N U L A R 
      T A S T E R         I N G R A T E 
                          L A Y E R E D    Best Webstern word squares

Gallery explanation

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

Dual cryptogram

Some publications

Languages and systems

M. D. McIlroy, Macro instruction extension of compiler languages, CACM 3 (1960) 214-220
A. G. Hume and M. D. McIlroy, Unix Research System, 10th Edition, Saunders College Publishing, Philadelphia (1990) ISBN 0-03-047352-5 (Vol. I), 0-03-047329-5 (Vol. II)
J. Bentley, D. E. Knuth and M. D. McIlroy, Programming pearls, CACM 29 (1986) 471-483 [literary programming]

Security

M. D. McIlroy, Virology 101, Computing Systems 2 (1989) 173-181
D. D. Clark et al (including M. D. McIlroy), Computers at Risk, National Academy Press, Washington (1990)
M. D. McIlroy and J. A. Reeds, Multilevel security in the Unix tradition, Software--Practice and Experience 22 (1992) 673-694

Graphics

M. D. McIlroy, Best approximate circles on integer grids, ACM Trans. on Graphics, 2 (1983) 237-263
M. D. McIlroy, A note on discrete representation of lines, AT&T Tech. J., 64 (1985) 481-490
M. D. McIlroy, Getting raster ellipses right, ACM Transactions on graphics 11 (1992) 259-275
M. D. McIlroy, Number theory in computer graphics, in S. A. Burr (ed.), The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Number Theory, Proceedings of Symposia in Applied Mathematics 46, Am. Math. Soc., Providence (1992) 105-121

Algorithms

J. W. Hunt and M. D. McIlroy, An algorithm for differential file comparison, Comp. Sci. Tech. Rep. #41, Bell Telephone Laboratories (1976)
M. D. McIlroy, Power series, power serious, J. Functional Programming, 9 (1999) 323-335
P. M. McIlroy, K. Bostic and M. D. McIlroy, Engineering radix sort, Computing Systems 6 (1993) 5-27
M. D. McIlroy A killer adversary for quicksort Software--Practice and Experience, 29 (1999) 341-344

Text processing

M. D. McIlroy, Synthetic English speech by rule, Comp. Sci. Tech. Rep. #14, Bell Telephone Laboratories (1973)
M. D. McIlroy, Development of a spelling list, IEEE Trans. on Communications 30 (1982) 91-99

Milieu

M. D. McIlroy, Mass produced software components, Proc. Nato Software Eng. Conf., Garmisch, Germany (1968) 138-155
W. S. Brown, B. D. Holbrook, and M. D. McIlroy, Computer science, in S. Millman (ed.) A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System, Communication Sciences (1925-1980), AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984) [computer science at Bell Labs]
J. Hartmanis et al (including M. D. McIlroy), Computing the Future, National Academy Press, Washington (1992)
T. Hughes et al (including M. D. McIlroy), Funding a Revolution:Government Support for Computing Research, National Academy Press, Washington (1998)

Source code

Full bibliography bibtex | Biography | Computing Sciences Research Center