COMPUTER SCIENCE AT WATERLOO A HISTORY TO CELEBRATE 25 YEARS by Peter J. Ponzo The William G. Davis Centre for Computer Research University of Waterloo COMPUTER SCIENCE at WATERLOO A History to Celebrate 25 Years : 1967 - 1992 Table of Contents Foreword ...................................................................................................................... 1 Prologue: "Computers" from Babbage to Turing .............................................. 3 Chapter One: the First Decade 1957-1967 ............................................................ 13 Chapter Two: the Early Years 1967 -1975 ............................................................ 39 Chapter Three: Modern Times 1975 -1992.............................................................. 52 Chapter Four: Symbolic Computation ..................................................................... 62 Chapter Five: the New Oxford English Dictionary ................................................. 67 Chapter Six: Computer Graphics ........................................................................... 74 Appendices A: A memo to Arts Faculty Chairman ..................................................................... 77 B: Undergraduate Courses in Computer Science .................................................... 79 C: the Computer Systems Group ............................................................................. 80 D: PhD Theses ......................................................................................................... 89 E: Graduate Courses in Computer Science ............................................................. 98 F: Research Activities ............................................................................................. 100 G: Faculty Members ................................................................................................ 102 H: Chairmen of Computer Science & Waterloo Campus Map ................................ 106 I: Some Conferences .............................................................................................. 107 J: Coat of Arms ....................................................................................................... 108 K: "Memories" ......................................................................................................... 109 L: 25th Anniversary Research Day ......................................................................... 123 Z: the University Coat of Arms ............................................................................... 124 Index ............................................................................................................................ 126 Published by Computer Science Department University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA N2L 3G1 Telephone: (519) 885-1211, extension 4464 © 1992 Peter J. Ponzo University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Computer Science Department. Printed by Graphic Services, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA Acknowledgement As the 25th Anniversary of the Computer Science Department approached, we formed a committee to determine ways in which we could mark the occasion. At the first meeting it was suggested we try to compile a brief history (perhaps 10 pages or so) to capture some statistical details as well as a few anecdotes. We approached Peter Ponzo of our Applied Mathematics Department to persuade him to be the author of this document. We selected Peter because he has been at the University of Waterloo since 1957, and has always had an interest in computing and its development at Waterloo. Peter accepted the challenge without hesitation. With only four months to complete the project, we agreed Peter would ask for input as broadly as possible, and he would try to integrate all of it in a consistent anecdotal style (with cartoons!). We recognized that in such a short time he would probably not hear from everyone, but that he would proceed with whatever was provided. The result is this short history (150 pages!) which in fact captures much more information than we would have thought possible in such a limited time. We wish to thank Peter for what has turned out to be four months of dedicated effort, all on a volunteer basis. J. Wesley Graham Chairman, 25th Anniversary Committee 1 Foreword Dear Reader: In late 1991, Wes Graham, acting as chairman of the 25th anniversary committee of the Department of Computer Science, asked me to write a History of Computer Science to celebrate the anniversary (the celebrations to be held in June, 1992). Although I was neither a member of the department nor intimately involved with developments in CS, I listened to his arguments of unbiassed writing (Wes is so naive) and you've been around forever and you're the only one stupid enough to agree a ... and I agreed (to the last, if not the first). I point out, at the beginning, that this history is less an accurate disposition of events and more a collection of stories (sometimes vaguely recalled from fading memory). Perhaps there are things mentioned which may offend. I hope not. There are undoubtedly biassed accounts of events (in spite of Wes' expectations). I hope not too biassed. Finally, although I would like to admit to being the source of all errors in this Computer Science History (CSH) I will only admit to putting any such errors into print. Further, I made no conscious decision concerning what to include and what to omit - I simply included those relevant and/or interesting events/stories/data about which I could (with relative ease) collect information (including some things not directly concerned with the Computer Science Department at Waterloo). In December, 1991, I spoke at some length with Ralph Stanton.b After an inordinate amount of sherry he related the early part of the First Decade which, I feel, is a necessary preamble to the 25 years since 1967. At this point I must admit to a tendency to elaborate (massage? dramatize?) in order to avoid a dry history too filled with facts chronologically ordered. Errors in dates, time of day, who said what to whom? and what was he wearing at the time? are inevitable results of this tendency. Subsequent anecdotal history is a consequence of discussions and/or correspondence and/or e-mail with a host of staff and students, a gaggle of a just kidding, Wes. b Ralph also browsed thru the early chapters and made verbal note of my short-term memory. (PJP) 2 faculty, a pride of deans, including Wes Graham, Don Cowan, Barry Wills, Jim Dodd, Frank Tompa, John Brzozowski, Keith Geddes, Greg Fee, Benton Leong, Ian Allen, Bev Marshman, Doug Lawson, Eric Mackie, George Hill, Gary Embro, Bob Zarnke, Richard Bartels, Kelly Booth, Erna Unrau, Jack Kalbfleisch, Doug Wright, Bill Forbes, Alan George, Paul Dirksen, Jim Kalbfleisch, Dave Sprott, Eric Manning, Bruce Simpson, Jerry Bolce, Peter Roe, ... (this list in no particular order). Finally, I mention that the Prologue, from Babbage to Turing, was inserted late in the project to provide an interesting background; sometimes sad, sometimes amusing. (It it even more amusing to imagine this a History of Computing on Planet Earth, beginning with Charles Babbage, passing through Alan Turing, Ralph Stanton, Wes Graham and Don Cowan, and ending with Computer Science at Waterloo.) Thank yous: A very very special and affectionate thank you to Wendy Rush who went out of her way to provide me with machine-readable data. Thanks, too, to Sandra Ward (for information on WATFOR and WATFIV), to Redina Caracaz (for a complete set of Math Faculty Council minutes starting with the department of mathematics, before it became a Faculty), to Jane Britton (for UW archival material), to George Hill (for helping me get this CSH thru' Graphics Services by the deadline) and to Peter Ponzo (for the marvelous cartoons). I have enjoyed the task and hope you find something of interest. Peter James Ponzo, Applied Math Department, University of Waterloo, May, 1992. P.S. This CSH® was prepared on a Macintosh® microcomputer using the word processor Microsoft® Word® and the MacPaint® program embedded in Hypercard®. 3 Prologue "Computers" from Babbage to Turing For 28 years, during the 19th century, an English school teacher, William Shanks, spent his evenings computing the first 707 digits of the number π ... and made an error in the 528th place. It took years - and he made an error. He had used multiplication tables and tables of logarithms, yet each table had taken years to generate - and were filled with errors. The people who generated the tables, and indeed Shanks himself, were "computers" in the original sense of the word. Speed and reliability were the bane of "computers" ... and would be for another century. ****** In the seventeenth century, mechanical calculators for performing addition/subtraction (and multiplication/division ... with some help from the operator) had been devised by the German astronomer and mathematician Wilhelm Schickard. The French mathematician Blaise Pascal later built such a device and later still, in 1673, the German mathematician Wilhelm Leibniz (who, with Isaac Newton, co-invented calculus) built a mechanical multiplier. «Leibniz was to write of Pascal's device "... it facilitates only additions and subtractions, the difficulty