A.S. Douglas
Encyclopedia
Professor Alexander "Sandy" Shafto Douglas CBE (born 21 May 1921, died 29 April 2010) was a British
professor of computer science
, credited with creating the first graphical Computer game OXO
(also known as Noughts and Crosses) a tic-tac-toe
computer game in 1952 on the EDSAC
computer at University of Cambridge
.
Douglas died in sleep on April 29, 2010, from pneumonia
.
. At age eight, his family moved to Cromwell Road
, near what would become the London Air Terminal.
In the winter of 1938–39, Douglas and his future wife Andrey Parker made a snowman in the grounds of the Natural History Museum
. Douglas and his wife would go on to have two children and at least two grandsons.
During the Blitz, in 1940–41, Douglas's Home Guard Unit, 'C' Company of the Chelsea and Kensington Battalion of the KRRC, had its headquarters in the basement of the Royal School of Mines
, just the other side of Exhibition Road
from the museums.
in 1950. In 1952, while working towards earning his PhD, he wrote a thesis which focused on human-computer interactions and he needed an example to prove his theories. At that time, Cambridge was home to the second only stored-program computer, the EDSAC
or Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (the first being Manchester University's "Small Scale Experimental Machine" or SSEM, nicknamed "The Baby", which ran its first program June 21, 1948). This gave Douglas the perfect opportunity to prove his findings by programming the code for a simple game where a player can compete against the computer — OXO
.
1953: Elected as a Prize Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge
, Douglas spends a year at the University of Illinois Computation laboratory as assistant Professor.
1955: Became Junior Bursar of Trinity College.
computer was installed in autumn 1957 in the Eldon Chapel on Woodhouse Lane. Douglas set up the Computer Laboratory of the University of Leeds
, and it was there that he first became interested in the application of computers to business problems
In June 1960 the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals set up a Working Party to explore the creation of a national system for handling university admissions. Douglas was appointed a member of the Working Party to provide advice on the use of computers in this system. He had previously worked at Leeds with Ronald Kay, who was to become UCCA
's General Secretary, on "an early and primitive but successful attempt to introduce computer methods into student registration procedures".
an software interests of Leasco Systems and Research Ltd. as Chairman.
He has been a consultant to various agencies of the United Nations
over the past decade, including
He has acted as a consultant also for several international companies including Shell
, Philips
, and ICI
.
1970–1974: Acted as Expert Adviser to Sub-Committees D & A of the Select Committee of Parliament on Science and Technology for their enquiry into computing.
1976–1977: Sub-Committee C of the Select Committee on the Nationalised Industries for their enquiries into Cable and Wireless Ltd. and the Tote
.
1973–1978: Non-executive Director of the Monotype Corporation.
October 1969 – ?: Professor of Computational Methods at the London School of Economics
.
Vice-Chairman of the Academic Board
on the Board of Management of the University of London
Computer Centre
Moderator to the Computer Science Department of Hong Kong Polytechnic.
Founder member of the British Computer Society
: helped to found the Leeds Branch and became its first Chairman. He has served on many of its Committees, and is a Fellow and past President (1971/1972).
Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications
.
Member of the O.R. Society, the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing, and Data for Development.
Vice-President of IFIP, the international computer coordinating body and Chairman of its Committee on International Liaison. He also represented IFIP on the Five International Associations Coordinating Committee, which coordinates the work of IFIP with that of IFORS, IFAC, AICA and IMEKO
1977: awarded the IFIP Silver Core award.
Member of the British National Committee for support of the Unesco General Information Programme, and of the BNC for IIASA
Governor of the International Council for Computer Communication.
London School of Economics
A S Douglas, CBE MA PhD (Cantab) BSc(EstMan) FBCS FIMA FRSA, Emeritus Professor of Computational Methods
CBE FBCS CEng
(Prof. Dr. phut, economist born London, May 21, 1921
Andrey Parker
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
professor of computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, credited with creating the first graphical Computer game OXO
OXO
OXO was a computer game written for the EDSAC computer in 1952, an implementation of the game known as Noughts and Crosses in the UK, or tic-tac-toe in the United States. It was written by Alexander S. Douglas as an illustration for his Ph.D. thesis on human-computer interaction for the University...
(also known as Noughts and Crosses) a tic-tac-toe
Tic-tac-toe
Tic-tac-toe, also called wick wack woe and noughts and crosses , is a pencil-and-paper game for two players, X and O, who take turns marking the spaces in a 3×3 grid. The X player usually goes first...
computer game in 1952 on the EDSAC
EDSAC
Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator was an early British computer. The machine, having been inspired by John von Neumann's seminal First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, was constructed by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in England...
computer at University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
.
Douglas died in sleep on April 29, 2010, from pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
.
Early life
Douglas was born on May 21, 1921 in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. At age eight, his family moved to Cromwell Road
Cromwell Road
Cromwell Road is a major road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, and is designated part of the A4. It was created in the 19th century and is named after Oliver Cromwell....
, near what would become the London Air Terminal.
A 74 bus ride for one old penny took me to Exhibition Road, from which I could go towards South Kensington station to my father's office (which is still there) and workshop (now demolished) down by what became the Elysée Française. Alternatively, I could turn north to the Science Museum - a trip I took often.
In the winter of 1938–39, Douglas and his future wife Andrey Parker made a snowman in the grounds of the Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...
. Douglas and his wife would go on to have two children and at least two grandsons.
During the Blitz, in 1940–41, Douglas's Home Guard Unit, 'C' Company of the Chelsea and Kensington Battalion of the KRRC, had its headquarters in the basement of the Royal School of Mines
Royal School of Mines
Royal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering, and Materials at Imperial College London.- History :The Royal School of Mines was established in 1851, as the Government School of Mines and Science Applied to the Arts...
, just the other side of Exhibition Road
Exhibition Road
Exhibition Road is a street in South Kensington, London, forming a semi-border between the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster...
from the museums.
Cambridge
Douglas attended the University of CambridgeUniversity of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
in 1950. In 1952, while working towards earning his PhD, he wrote a thesis which focused on human-computer interactions and he needed an example to prove his theories. At that time, Cambridge was home to the second only stored-program computer, the EDSAC
EDSAC
Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator was an early British computer. The machine, having been inspired by John von Neumann's seminal First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, was constructed by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in England...
or Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (the first being Manchester University's "Small Scale Experimental Machine" or SSEM, nicknamed "The Baby", which ran its first program June 21, 1948). This gave Douglas the perfect opportunity to prove his findings by programming the code for a simple game where a player can compete against the computer — OXO
OXO
OXO was a computer game written for the EDSAC computer in 1952, an implementation of the game known as Noughts and Crosses in the UK, or tic-tac-toe in the United States. It was written by Alexander S. Douglas as an illustration for his Ph.D. thesis on human-computer interaction for the University...
.
Trinity College
1953–19571953: Elected as a Prize Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
, Douglas spends a year at the University of Illinois Computation laboratory as assistant Professor.
1955: Became Junior Bursar of Trinity College.
Leeds
1957: The Leeds PegasusPegasus (computer)
Pegasus was an early thermionic valve computer built by Ferranti, Ltd of Great Britain.The Pegasus 1 was first delivered in 1956 and the Pegasus 2 was delivered in 1959...
computer was installed in autumn 1957 in the Eldon Chapel on Woodhouse Lane. Douglas set up the Computer Laboratory of the University of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
, and it was there that he first became interested in the application of computers to business problems
The Pegasus holds an especial place in my affection, it being the machine I installed as the central University machine in a disused chapel in Leeds in 1957 — it was known as Lucifer, for Leeds University Computing Installation (FERranti). Our au pair girl from Spain made a beautiful little devilish doll which decorated the machine — it has probably disappeared by now.
In June 1960 the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals set up a Working Party to explore the creation of a national system for handling university admissions. Douglas was appointed a member of the Working Party to provide advice on the use of computers in this system. He had previously worked at Leeds with Ronald Kay, who was to become UCCA
Universities Central Council on Admissions
UCCA, the Universities Central Council on Admissions, provided a central clearing house for university applications in the United Kingdom from its formation in 1961 until its merger with PCAS to form UCAS in 1993....
's General Secretary, on "an early and primitive but successful attempt to introduce computer methods into student registration procedures".
CEIR
1960: Entered the commercial field as Technical Director of the UK subsidiary of C-E-I-R (now Scientific Control Systems).Leasco
1968: Left CEIR to initiate the EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an software interests of Leasco Systems and Research Ltd. as Chairman.
Other
In 1980 I worked out that an Apple with two floppy disc drives was about 300 times as powerful as the Pegasus at 1/300th of the cost. Today we can assume that a further reduction of 100 times in cost per operation has taken place, though I haven' t done the sums with a 486-based micro. We must also bear in mind that the Pegasus represented an improvement of at least tenfold in cost per operation over earlier machines. An industry that has reduced its cost per operation by a factor of 10 million or so over 45 years is surely unique and certainly not easy to keep pace with mentally.
We are now faced with the problem of what to do about software. The article, like a book, is easy to 'preserve', but to run it requires the original hardware or an emulator.
Martin Campbell-KellyMartin Campbell-KellyMartin Campbell-Kelly is an English computer scientist based at the University of Warwick who has specialised in the history of computing.Campbell-Kelly is professor emeritus in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick. He is on the editorial board of the IEEE Annals of the...
has built an emulator of EDSAC I, and can run the programs on it. But it is difficult, even impossible, to give the flavour of what they did without the photoreader and the screen, since the ability to use these as input or output in unconventional ways, as in my noughts and crosses program where the players interrupted the light beam to input a move and viewed the storage monitor to see the 'board', cannot readily be reproduced on the emulating equipment.
The matter becomes even more awkward with micros, where programs of similar nature, eg WordstarWordStarWordStar is a word processor application, published by MicroPro International, originally written for the CP/M operating system but later ported to DOS, that enjoyed a dominant market share during the early to mid-1980s. Although Seymour I...
, WordperfectWordPerfectWordPerfect is a word processing application, now owned by Corel.Bruce Bastian, a Brigham Young University graduate student, and BYU computer science professor Dr. Alan Ashton joined forces to design a word processing system for the city of Orem's Data General Corp. minicomputer system in 1979...
and WordMicrosoft WordMicrosoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
, have been implemented on several different machines so as to look as nearly alike as possible to the user. No doubt this will be taken up by the CCS Working Parties in due course and some solutions found for working presentations, which must be our aim.
All of us on the Committee look forward to welcoming assistance from whatever quarter, in our efforts to carry forward a memory of this fascinating and fast changing industry in working order!
He has been a consultant to various agencies of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
over the past decade, including
- the Office of Science and Technology
- the Human Rights CommissionHuman rights commissionA Human Rights Commission is a body set up to investigate, promote or protect human rights.The term may refer to international, national or subnational bodies set up for this purpose, such as national human rights institutions or truth and reconciliation commissions.-International Human Rights...
- the Statistical Office of the U.N., the I.L.O. and UNESCOUNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
He has acted as a consultant also for several international companies including Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...
, Philips
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
, and ICI
Imperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries was a British chemical company, taken over by AkzoNobel, a Dutch conglomerate, one of the largest chemical producers in the world. In its heyday, ICI was the largest manufacturing company in the British Empire, and commonly regarded as a "bellwether of the British...
.
1970–1974: Acted as Expert Adviser to Sub-Committees D & A of the Select Committee of Parliament on Science and Technology for their enquiry into computing.
1976–1977: Sub-Committee C of the Select Committee on the Nationalised Industries for their enquiries into Cable and Wireless Ltd. and the Tote
Tote
Tote may refer to:*Tote, abbreviation for Tote board, the name for the computerised system which runs parimutuel betting, calculating payoff odds, displaying them, and producing tickets based on incoming bets...
.
1973–1978: Non-executive Director of the Monotype Corporation.
October 1969 – ?: Professor of Computational Methods at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
.
Vice-Chairman of the Academic Board
on the Board of Management of the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
Computer Centre
Moderator to the Computer Science Department of Hong Kong Polytechnic.
Founder member of the British Computer Society
British Computer Society
The British Computer Society, is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in Information Technology in the United Kingdom and internationally...
: helped to found the Leeds Branch and became its first Chairman. He has served on many of its Committees, and is a Fellow and past President (1971/1972).
Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications
Institute of Mathematics and its Applications
The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications is the UK's chartered professional body for mathematicians and one of the UK's learned societies for mathematics ....
.
Member of the O.R. Society, the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing, and Data for Development.
Vice-President of IFIP, the international computer coordinating body and Chairman of its Committee on International Liaison. He also represented IFIP on the Five International Associations Coordinating Committee, which coordinates the work of IFIP with that of IFORS, IFAC, AICA and IMEKO
1977: awarded the IFIP Silver Core award.
Member of the British National Committee for support of the Unesco General Information Programme, and of the BNC for IIASA
Governor of the International Council for Computer Communication.
London School of Economics
A S Douglas, CBE MA PhD (Cantab) BSc(EstMan) FBCS FIMA FRSA, Emeritus Professor of Computational Methods
CBE FBCS CEng
(Prof. Dr. phut, economist born London, May 21, 1921
Andrey Parker
Writings
Over 60 papers have been published by Professor Douglas covering topics in Atomic Physics, Crystallography, Solution of Differential Equations, Computer Design, Programming and Operational Research in the Shipbuilding, Oil Chemical Mining, Engineering and Transportation Industries, and in the Printing Industry.- Douglas, Alexander Shafto; May 18, 1954; "Some Computations in Theoretical Physics", PhD Dissertation 2478, (University of Cambridge. Faculty of Mathematics).
- Computers and Society: an Inaugural Lecture [Delivered on 27 April 1972, by Alexander Shafto Douglas; Publisher: London School of Economics and P; Date Published: 1973. ISBN 978-0-85328-019-4 ISBN 0-85328-019-3.
- Science Journal, October 1970 "Computers in the Seventies", Alexander “Sandy” Douglas.
- Computer Networks, Volume 5, 1981, pp. 9–14. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B75C0-48VX064-4G&_user=10&_coverDate=02%2F28%2F1981&_rdoc=4&_fmt=high&_orig=browse&_srch=doc-info(%23toc%2312996%231981%23999949998%23435809%23FLP%23display%23Volume)&_cdi=12996&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=14&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=b93af0dd6b0dc72243b68c16e1e8d097"Computers and Communications in the 1980's: Benefits and Problems"], Alexander S. Douglas
- Sandy Douglas, "Some Memories of EDSAC I: 1950–1952", IEEE Annals of the History of ComputingIEEE Annals of the History of ComputingThe IEEE Annals of the History of Computing is a quarterly journal published by the IEEE Computer Society. It contains peer-reviewed articles and other contributions on the history of computing, computer science and computer hardware by computer scientists and historians...
, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 98–99, 208, October 1979.
External links
- EWD1285, Edsger DijkstraEdsger DijkstraEdsger Wybe Dijkstra ; ) was a Dutch computer scientist. He received the 1972 Turing Award for fundamental contributions to developing programming languages, and was the Schlumberger Centennial Chair of Computer Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin from 1984 until 2000.Shortly before his...
- Letter from Leeds: Image
- Note for researchers: Do not confuse with another researcher from same time and area: http://pb.rcpsych.org/cgi/reprint/17/4/252.pdf
- Video (Go to 4:40): Video
- Obituary by Frank LandFrank LandFrank F Land FBCS is an information systems researcher and was the first UK Professor of Information Systems. He is currently emeritus professor in the Department of Information Systems at the London School of Economics ....
and T. William OlleT. William OlleT. William Olle is a British computer scientist and consultant, and President of T. William Olle Associates, England.- Biography :Bill Olle received a M.Sc. degree in 1954 and a Ph.D...
in Resurrection, the Bulletin of the Computer Conservation Society, issue 51, Summer 2010
