Alan Kay - Sarcasm Wiki

Contents

1. Overview
2. Etymology
3. Cultural Impact

Alan Kay

Alan Kay (disambiguation)
Not to be confused with Alan K .

{{short description|American computer scientist and pioneer of object‑oriented programming}}

{{Infobox scientist|name=Alan Curtis Kay|image=|caption=Alan Kay holding the prototype of the Dynabook |birth_date=1940-05-17|birth place=[[Springfield, Massachusetts]]|occupation=Computer scientist|known_for=[[Dynabook]]|known_for2=[[Object-oriented programming]]|known_for3=[[Smalltalk]]|known_for4=[[Desktop metaphor]]|known_for5=[[Graphical user interface]]|known_for6=[[Windows]]|spouse=[[Bonnie MacBird]]|awards=[[ACM Turing Award]]| awards2=[[Kyoto Prize]]| awards3=[[Charles Stark Draper Prize]]|signature=|signature_alt=|signature_size=|signature_color=|website=|website_label=}}

Alan Curtis Kay (born May 17, 1940) [1] is an American [[Computer_science|computer scientist]] who pioneered work on [[Object-oriented programming|object-oriented programming]] and [[Window_(computing)|windowing]] [[Graphical_user_interface|graphical user interface]] (GUI) design. At [[Xerox]] [[PARC_(company)|PARC]] he led the design and development of the first modern windowed [[Desktop_metaphor|computer desktop]] interface. There he also led the development of the influential [[Object-oriented programming|object-oriented]] [[Programming_language|programming language]] [[Smalltalk]]/Smalltalk, both personally designing most of the early versions of the language and coining the term “object-oriented.”

He has been elected a Fellow of the [[American_Academy_of_Arts_and_Sciences|American Academy of Arts and Sciences]], the [[National_Academy_of_Engineering|National Academy of Engineering]], and the [[Royal_Society_of_Arts|Royal Society of Arts]]. [2] He received the [[Turing_Award|Turing Award]] in 2003. ]

Early life and work

In an interview on education in America with the Davis Group Ltd., Kay said:

“I had the misfortune or the fortune to learn how to read fluently starting about the age of three, so I had read maybe 150 books by the time I hit first grade, and I already knew the teachers were lying to me.” [4]

Originally from [[Springfield,_Massachusetts|Springfield, Massachusetts]], Kay’s family relocated several times due to his father’s career in [[Physiology|physiology]] before ultimately settling in the [[New_York_metropolitan_area|New York metropolitan area]].

He attended [[Brooklyn_Technical_High_School|Brooklyn Technical High School]]. Having accumulated enough credits to graduate, he then attended [[Bethany_College_(West_Virginia)|Bethany College]] in [[Bethany,_West_Virginia|Bethany, West Virginia]], where he majored in [[Biology|biology]] and minored in mathematics.

Kay then taught guitar in [[Denver|Denver]], Colorado for a year. He was drafted into the [[United_States_Army|United States Army]], then qualified for officer training in the [[United_States_Air_Force|United States Air Force]], where he became a [[Computer_programmer|computer programmer]] after passing an aptitude test.

After his discharge, he enrolled at the [[University_of_Colorado_Boulder|University of Colorado Boulder]] and earned a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in mathematics and [[Molecular_biology|molecular biology]] in 1966.

In the autumn of 1966, he began graduate school at the [[University_of_Utah_College_of_Engineering|University of Utah College of Engineering]]. He earned a [[Master_of_Science|Master of Science]] in [[Electrical_engineering|electrical engineering]] in 1968, then a [[Doctor_of_Philosophy|Doctor of Philosophy]] in [[Computer_science|computer science]] in 1969. His doctoral dissertation, FLEX: A Flexible Extendable Language [5] [6] [7] While there, he worked with the “fathers of [[Computer_graphics|computer graphics]]” [[David_C.Evans(computer_scientist)|David C. Evans]] (who had recently been recruited from the [[University_of_California,Berkeley|University of California, Berkeley]] to start Utah’s computer science department) and [[Ivan_Sutherland|Ivan Sutherland]] (best known for writing such pioneering programs as [[Sketchpad]]). Kay credits Sutherland’s 1963 thesis for influencing his views on [[Object(computer_science)|objects]] and [[Computer_programming|computer programming]]. As he grew busier with research for the [[Defense_Advanced_Research_Projects_Agency|Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency]] (DARPA), he ended his musical career.

In 1968, he met [[Seymour_Papert|Seymour Papert]] and learned of the programming language [[Logo]]/Logo, a [[Dialect_(computing)|dialect]] of [[Lisp_(programming_language)|Lisp]] optimized for educational purposes. This led him to learn of the work of [[Jean_Piaget|Jean Piaget]], [[Jerome_Bruner|Jerome Bruner]], [[Lev_Vygotsky|Lev Vygotsky]], and of [[Constructionism_(learning_theory)|constructionist learning]], further influencing his professional orientation. On December 9 of that same year he was present in San Francisco for the [[Mother_of_all_Demos|Mother of all Demos]], a landmark computer demonstration by [[Douglas_Engelbart|Douglas Engelbart]]. Even though he was sick with a high fever on that day, the event was very influential in Kay’s career. He recalled later: “It was one of the greatest experiences in my life” [8].

In 1969, Kay became a visiting researcher at the [[Stanford_Artificial_Intelligence_Laboratory|Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory]] in anticipation of accepting a professorship at [[Carnegie_Mellon_University|Carnegie Mellon University]]. Instead, in 1970, he joined the [[Xerox|Xerox]] [[PARC_(company)|PARC]] research staff in [[Palo_Alto,_California|Palo Alto, California]]. Through the decade, he developed prototypes of networked workstations using the programming language [[Smalltalk]]/Smalltalk.

Along with some colleagues at PARC, Kay is one of the fathers of the idea of [[Object-oriented programming|object-oriented programming]] (OOP), which he named. [9] Some original object-oriented concepts, including the use of the words ‘object’ and ‘class’, had been developed for [[Simula]]/Simula 67 at the [[Norwegian_Computing_Center|Norwegian Computing Center]]. Kay said:

“I’m sorry that I long ago coined the term ‘objects’ for this topic because it gets many people to focus on the lesser idea. The big idea is ‘messaging’.” [10]

While at PARC, Kay conceived the [[Dynabook]] concept, a key progenitor of laptop and [[Tablet_computer|tablet]] computers and the [[E-book|e-book]]. He is also the architect of the modern overlapping windowing [[Graphical_user_interface|GUI]] (GUI). [11] Because the Dynabook was conceived as an educational platform, he is considered one of the first researchers into [[Mobile_learning|mobile learning]]; many features of the Dynabook concept have been adopted in the design of the [[One_Laptop_Per_Child|One Laptop Per Child]] educational platform, [12] with which Kay was actively involved.

Subsequent work

From 1981 to 1984, Kay was Chief Scientist at [[Atari_(Inc.|Atari]]). In 1984, he became an [[Apple_Fellow|Apple Fellow]]. After the closure of the [[Apple_Advanced_Technology_Group|Apple Advanced Technology Group]] in 1997, [13] he was recruited by his friend [[Bran_Ferren|Bran Ferren]], head of research and development at [[Disney|Disney]], to join [[Walt_Disney_Imagineering|Walt Disney Imagineering]] as a Disney Fellow. He remained there until Ferren left to start Applied Minds Inc with Imagineer [[Danny_Hillis|Danny Hillis]], leading to the cessation of the Fellows program.

In 2001, Kay founded [[Viewpoints_Research_Institute|Viewpoints Research Institute]], a nonprofit organization dedicated to children, learning, and advanced software development. For their first ten years, Kay and his Viewpoints group were based at Applied Minds in [[Glendale,_California|Glendale, California]], where he and Ferren worked on various projects. Kay served as president of the Institute until its closure in 2018.

In 2002 Kay joined [[HP_Labs|HP Labs]] as a senior fellow, [14] departing when HP disbanded the Advanced Software Research Team on July 20, 2005. [15]
He has been an adjunct professor of [[Computer_science|computer science]] at the [[University_of_California,_Los_Angeles|University of California, Los Angeles]], a visiting professor at [[Kyoto_University|Kyoto University]], and an adjunct professor at the [[Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology|Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT). Kay served on the advisory board of [[TTI/Vanguard|TTI/Vanguard]].

Tweak

In December 1995, while still at Apple, Kay collaborated with many others to start the [[Open_source_software|open source]] [[Squeak]] version of [[Smalltalk]]/Smalltalk. As part of this effort, in November 1996, his team began research on what became the [[Etoys_(programming_language|Etoys]] system. More recently he started, with [[David_A.Smith(computer_scientist)|David A. Smith]]/David A. Smith, [[David_P._Reed|David P. Reed]], [[Andreas_Raab|Andreas Raab]], Rick McGeer, [[Julian_Lombardi|Julian Lombardi]], and [[Mark_McCahill|Mark McCahill]], the [[Croquet_Project|Croquet Project]], an open-source networked 2D and 3D environment for collaborative work.

In 2001, it became clear that the Etoy architecture in Squeak had reached its limits in what the [[Morphic_(software|Morphic]] interface infrastructure could do. [[Andreas_Raab|Andreas Raab]], a researcher in Kay’s group then at [[Hewlett-Packard|HP]], proposed defining a “script process” and providing a default scheduling mechanism that avoided several more general problems. [16] The result was a new user interface, proposed to replace the Squeak Morphic user interface. [[Tweak_(programming_environment|Tweak]] added mechanisms of islands, asynchronous messaging, players and costumes, language extensions, projects, and tile scripting. [17] Its underlying object system is [[Class_(programming)|class-based]], but to users (during programming) it acts as if it were [[Prototype_(programming_language|prototype-based]]). Tweak objects are created and run in Tweak project windows.

The Children’s Machine

In November 2005, at the [[World_Summit_on_the_Information_Society|World Summit on the Information Society]], the MIT research laboratories unveiled a new laptop computer for educational use around the world. It has many names, including the $100 Laptop, the [[One_Laptop_per_Child|One Laptop per Child]] program, the [[Children’s_Machine|Children’s Machine]], and the [[XO-1_(laptop|XO-1]] laptop). The program was founded and is sustained by Kay’s friend [[Nicholas_Negroponte|Nicholas Negroponte]], and is based on Kay’s [[Dynabook|Dynabook]] ideal. Kay is a prominent co-developer of the computer, focusing on its educational software using [[Squeak]]/Squeak and [[Etoys_(programming_language|Etoys]]).

Reinventing programming

Kay has lectured extensively on the idea that the computer revolution is very new, and all of the good ideas have not been universally implemented. His lectures at the [[OOPSLA_(conference|OOPSLA]] 1997 conference, and his ACM [[Turing_Award|Turing Award]] talk, “The Computer Revolution Hasn’t Happened Yet”, were informed by his experiences with [[Sketchpad]], [[Simula]], [[Smalltalk]], and the bloated code of commercial software.

On August 31, 2006, Kay’s proposal to the United States [[National_Science_Foundation|National Science Foundation]] (NSF) was granted, funding [[Viewpoints_Research_Institute|Viewpoints Research Institute]] for several years. The proposal title was “STEPS Toward the Reinvention of Programming: A compact and Practical Model of Personal Computing as a Self-exploratorium”. [18] STEPS is a [[Recursive_acronym|recursive acronym]] that stands for “STEPS Toward Expressive Programming Systems”. A sense of what Kay is trying to do comes from this quote, from the abstract of a seminar at Intel Research Labs, Berkeley: “The conglomeration of commercial and most open source software consumes in the neighborhood of several hundreds of millions of lines of code these days. We wonder: how small could be an understandable practical ‘Model T’ design that covers this functionality? 1M lines of code? 200K LOC? 100K LOC? 20K LOC?” [19]

Personal life

Kay is a former professional [[Jazz_guitarist|jazz guitarist]], composer, and theatrical designer.

He also is an amateur [[Pipe_organ|pipe organist]]. [20]

Kay is a grandson of author, illustrator, and photographer [[Clifton_Johnson_(author)|Clifton Johnson]], and a nephew of sailor, adventurer, and writer [[Irving_Johnson|Irving Johnson]].

Kay is married to the writer, actress, and producer [[Bonnie_MacBird|Bonnie MacBird]].

Awards and honors

Alan Kay receiving awards

[[Kyoto_Prize]]

[[Turing_Award]]

Kay has received many awards and honors, including:

• [[UdK_01-Award|UdK 01-Award]] in [[Berlin|Berlin]], Germany for pioneering the [[GUI|GUI]]; [21] J-D Warnier Prix D’Informatique; NEC C&C Prize (2001)

• [[Telluride_Tech_Festival_Award_of_Technology|Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology]] in Telluride, Colorado (2002)

• [[ACM_Turing_Award|ACM Turing Award]] “For pioneering many of the ideas at the root of contemporary object-oriented programming languages, leading the team that developed Smalltalk, and for fundamental contributions to personal computing” [1] (2003)

• [[UPE_Abacus_Award|UPE Abacus Award]], for individuals who have provided extensive support and leadership for student-related activities in the computing and information disciplines (2012)

• Honorary doctorates:

– [[Kungliga_Tekniska_Högskolan|Royal Institute of Technology]] in Stockholm [23] (2002)

– [[Georgia_Institute_of_Technology|Georgia Institute of Technology]] [24] (2005)

– [[Columbia_College_Chicago|Columbia College Chicago]] awarded Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa [25] (2005)

– [[Università_di_Pisa|Laurea Honoris Causa]] in Informatica, [[Università_di_Pisa|Università di Pisa]], Italy (2007)

– [[University_of_Waterloo|University of Waterloo]] [26] (2008)

– [[Kyoto_University|Kyoto University]] (2009)

– [[Universidad_de_Murcia|Universidad de Murcia]] [27] (2010)

– [[University_of_Edinburgh|University of Edinburgh]] [28] (2017)

• Honorary Professor, [[Berlin_University_of_the_Arts|Berlin University of the Arts]]

• Elected fellow of:

– [[American_Academy_of_Arts_and_Sciences|American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]

– [[National_Academy_of_Engineering|National Academy of Engineering]] for inventing the concept of portable personal computing. (1997)

– [[Royal_Society_of_Arts|Royal Society of Arts]]

– [[Computer_History_Museum|Computer History Museum]] “for his fundamental contributions to personal computing and human-computer interface development.” [29] (1999)

– [[Association_for_Computing_Machinery|Association for Computing Machinery]] “For fundamental contributions to personal computing and object-oriented programming.” [30] (2008)

– [[Hasso_Plattner_Institute_for_Digital_Engineering|Hasso Plattner Institute]] [31] [32] (2011)

His other honors include the J-D Warnier Prix d’Informatique, the ACM Systems Software Award, the NEC Computers & Communication Foundation Prize, the Funai Foundation Prize, the Lewis Branscomb Technology Award, and the ACM SIGCSE Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computer Science Education.