Ralph Griswold

Computer Scientist

1934 – 2006

93

Who was Ralph Griswold?

Ralph E. Griswold was a computer scientist known for his research into high-level programming languages and symbolic computation. His language credits include the string processing language SNOBOL, SL5, and Icon.

He attended Stanford University, receiving a bachelor's degree in physics, then an M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering. Griswold went to Bell Labs in 1962, where he studied ideas for non-numerical computation. SNOBOL was the outcome; it was a radically different language in its time and still is. He became the head of the Labs' Programming Research and Development department in 1967.

In 1971, he was hired by the University of Arizona to be its first professor of computer science, subsequently organized the department, and was its head until 1981. While at Arizona, Griswold developed Icon. The earlier Ratfor implementation of Icon was discarded and the language rewritten from scratch in C and UNIX.

In 1990 Griswold was appointed Regents' Professor, and he retired in 1995.

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Born
May 19, 1934
Modesto
Also known as
  • Ralph E Griswold
Children
Nationality
  • United States of America
Profession
Education
  • Stanford University
Employment
  • University of Arizona
Lived in
  • Modesto
Died
Oct 4, 2006
Tucson

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

Citation

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