Don Libes is a computer scientist

Computer scientist

A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....

 at NIST performing computer science research on interoperability. He works in the Manufacturing Systems Integration Division, which performs research on software integration methods, creating custom software that implements draft standards and serves as an interface to other components provided by separate vendors.

Libes is responsible for numerous implementations of STEP

ISO 10303

ISO 10303 is an ISO standard for the computer-interpretable representation and exchange of product manufacturing information. Its official title is: Automation systems and integration — Product data representation and exchange...

, a family of ISO standards and draft standards for product management. He is the creator of the NIST Identifier Collaboration Service, a free service to allow collaborative management of unmanaged namespaces. Libes is also responsible for one of the earliest network-shared memory ports on UNIX and the first port of XINU

Xinu

Xinu is a Unix-like operating system originally developed by Douglas Comer for instructional purposes at Purdue University in the 1980s. The name is both recursive, and is "Unix" spelled backwards...

 on UNIX.

Libes's book Obfuscated C Code and Other Mysteries explains the winning entries in the Obfuscated C Code Contest

International Obfuscated C Code Contest

The International Obfuscated C Code Contest is a programming contest for the most creatively obfuscated C code. It was held annually between 1984 and 1996, and thereafter in 1998, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2006....

, as an educational tool.

Libes is best known for Expect

Expect

Expect is a Unix automation and testing tool, written by Don Libes as an extension to the Tcl scripting language, for interactive applications such as telnet, ftp, passwd, fsck, rlogin, tip, ssh, and others. It uses Unix pseudo terminals to wrap up subprocesses transparently, allowing the...

, which is public domain software

Public domain software

Public domain software is software that has been placed in the public domain, in other words there is absolutely no ownership of the intellectual property that the software represents....

 for automating and testing interactive applications such as telnet

TELNET

Telnet is a network protocol used on the Internet or local area networks to provide a bidirectional interactive text-oriented communications facility using a virtual terminal connection...

, ftp, passwd

Passwd

passwd may refer to:* passwd , tool used for changing passwords on Unix and Unix-like operating systems.* passwd , the source of user information on Unix and Unix-like operating systems....

 and hundreds of other programs that have no internal control language (or too limited of a control language) of their own. Libes also developed Expectk, which glues Expect to Tk

TK

TK, Tk or tk may refer to:In music:* TK * TK Records, a record label started by Henry StoneIn television:* Takeru "T.K." Takaishi, a character from Digimon anime* TK, a character in Angel Beats!...

thereby allowing a character-graphic or line-oriented program to be entirely hidden with a modern graphical user interface.

Publications

Books:

• Don Libes and Sandy Ressler, Life With UNIX: A Guide For Everyone, Prentice-Hall, 1989. ISBN 0-13-536657-7.
• Don Libes, Obfuscated C and Other Mysteries, Wiley, 1993. ISBN 0-471-57805-3.
• Don Libes, Exploring Expect: A Tcl-based Toolkit for Automating Interactive Programs, O'Reilly, 1995. ISBN 1-565592-090-2.