Frances Allen has died

#1

Post by ntumlin » Wed, Aug 05, 2020, 11:46 PM UTC

Frances Allen has died
ibm.com

Re: Frances Allen has died

#2

Post by sitkack » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 12:58 AM UTC

:(

Optimizing Compilers for Parallel Computers, lecture by Frances E. Allen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv-wXcUxrmE

Frances Allen, 2006, ACM A.M. Turing Award Lecture, "Compiling for Performance: A Personal Tour" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjoU-MjCws4

Re: Frances Allen has died

#3

Post by relaunched » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 1:09 AM UTC

I'd love to see a black banner / bar in her honor.

Re: Frances Allen has died

#4

Post by DoreenMichele » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 1:11 AM UTC

First female IBM fellow.

First female winner of the Turing Award.

Lots of other notable stuff.

Sadly, this is the first I've heard of her. Hopefully all that means is I'm not a real programmer.

Edit: To be clear, I really meant "I hope other people here are familiar with her work, even though I am not because I'm not a real programmer." I'm happy to see that some people are, in fact, familiar with her and her work.

Re: Frances Allen has died

#5

Post by musicale » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 1:28 AM UTC

sitkack wrote: post #2

:( Optimizing Compilers for Parallel Computers, lecture by Frances E. Allen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv-wXcUxrmE Frances Allen, 2006, ACM A.M. Turing Award Lecture, "Compiling for Performance: A Personal Tour" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjoU-MjCws4

She also spoke at the acm turing100 symposium in 2012.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLTUvFboveM

Re: Frances Allen has died

#6

Post by fb03 » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 1:29 AM UTC

relaunched wrote: post #3

I'd love to see a black banner / bar in her honor.

I am rooting for this also.

Re: Frances Allen has died

#7

Post by hardwaregeek » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 1:45 AM UTC

I'd recommend reading her interview in Coders At Work. I never realized that compilers were already a flourishing field by the time C came around, and that C actually ended up having some negative effects in compiler dev.

Re: Frances Allen has died

#8

Post by ixtli » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 1:47 AM UTC

fb03 wrote: post #6

relaunched wrote: post #3

I'd love to see a black banner / bar in her honor.

I am rooting for this also.

I’d agree. I read an optimization paper by her in college.

Re: Frances Allen has died

#9

Post by hardwaregeek » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 1:47 AM UTC

relaunched wrote: post #3

I'd love to see a black banner / bar in her honor.

Agreed. Any Turing Award laureate, let alone the first female Turing Award laureate, deserves a black banner

Re: Frances Allen has died

#10

Post by sanxiyn » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 1:50 AM UTC

Frances Allen wrote "A Catalogue of Optimizing Transformations" in 1971. 50 years(!!!) later, they are still the backbone of optimizing compilers. I think the only major thing missing is autovectorization.

She was in her 30s when she wrote it.