Kenneth Bowles
Encyclopedia
Dr. Kenneth L "Ken" Bowles is best known for his work in initiating and directing the UCSD Pascal
project, when he was a professor of Computer Science at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).
under Prof. Henry Booker at Cornell University
in 1955 for radar studies of the Aurora Borealis.
near Lima Peru. That work involved heavy use of computers for signal analysis to study the earth's ionosphere and magnetosphere.
In 1965, Bowles was invited by Prof. Henry Booker to help him start the Applied ElectroPhysics Department at UCSD.
They were tasked to start and organize a new department of Applied Engineering Physics (AEP).
While starting to establish a new radio astronomy experiment near UCSD for studies of the Sun's ionized atmosphere, the concentration on computer analysis led UCSD to appoint Bowles as Computer Center Director in 1968. He introduced interactive computing to UCSD, but returned to full time teaching in 1974 when budget pressures made computer centers very controversial.
In an effort to increase student use of computers while also reducing costs, Bowles wanted to take advantage of small computer price/benefit. Urs-Ammann's P-machine
allowed Pascal
to be implemented on a variety of machines.
With graduate student Mark Overgaard and a supporting team of undergraduates, he then set out to provide low cost instructional computing services to the majority of UCSD students using small computers. Between late 1974 and 1980, that project grew into the UCSD Pascal
Project.
The UCSD Pascal
project caused some controversy, with Pascal
purists unhappy with UCSD Pascal
extensions to the language. Some of these extensions are now present in modern Pascal
compilers.
As the UCSD Pascal
Project grew, it was necessary for the project to leave UCSD by licensing the software to a commercial vendor. The UCSD concerns about taxes forced the project to be licensed to SofTech Microsystems, taking effect 1 June 1979.
Bowles then started a small software development company, later called "TeleSoft", which became a principal supplier of compilers for the Ada Programming Language worldwide. He took early Emeritus status in 1984 in order to concentrate his attentions at TeleSoft. After selling his part interest in TeleSoft in 1989, he participated for several years in the ISO committee responsible for the Ada standard of 1995.
Now retired, Bowles enjoys digital photography, mostly of the wild-flowers of San Diego County and birds of the south-western USA.
UCSD Pascal
UCSD Pascal was a Pascal programming language system that ran on the UCSD p-System, a portable, highly machine-independent operating system. UCSD Pascal was first released in 1978...
project, when he was a professor of Computer Science at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).
Education
Bowles received his PhDPHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
under Prof. Henry Booker at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in 1955 for radar studies of the Aurora Borealis.
Employment
Starting in 1960, Bowles worked for the Central Radio Propagation Lab, National Bureau of Standards, where he directed the construction and research use of the Jicamarca Radio ObservatoryJicamarca Radio Observatory
The Jicamarca Radio Observatory is the equatorial anchor of the Western Hemisphere chain of Incoherent Scatter Radar observatories extending from Lima, Peru to Søndre Strømfjord, Greenland. JRO is the premier scientific facility in the world for studying the equatorial ionosphere...
near Lima Peru. That work involved heavy use of computers for signal analysis to study the earth's ionosphere and magnetosphere.
In 1965, Bowles was invited by Prof. Henry Booker to help him start the Applied ElectroPhysics Department at UCSD.
They were tasked to start and organize a new department of Applied Engineering Physics (AEP).
While starting to establish a new radio astronomy experiment near UCSD for studies of the Sun's ionized atmosphere, the concentration on computer analysis led UCSD to appoint Bowles as Computer Center Director in 1968. He introduced interactive computing to UCSD, but returned to full time teaching in 1974 when budget pressures made computer centers very controversial.
In an effort to increase student use of computers while also reducing costs, Bowles wanted to take advantage of small computer price/benefit. Urs-Ammann's P-machine
P-Code machine
In computer programming, a p-code machine, or portable code machine is a virtual machine designed to execute p-code...
allowed Pascal
Pascal (programming language)
Pascal is an influential imperative and procedural programming language, designed in 1968/9 and published in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth as a small and efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring.A derivative known as Object Pascal...
to be implemented on a variety of machines.
With graduate student Mark Overgaard and a supporting team of undergraduates, he then set out to provide low cost instructional computing services to the majority of UCSD students using small computers. Between late 1974 and 1980, that project grew into the UCSD Pascal
UCSD Pascal
UCSD Pascal was a Pascal programming language system that ran on the UCSD p-System, a portable, highly machine-independent operating system. UCSD Pascal was first released in 1978...
Project.
The UCSD Pascal
UCSD Pascal
UCSD Pascal was a Pascal programming language system that ran on the UCSD p-System, a portable, highly machine-independent operating system. UCSD Pascal was first released in 1978...
project caused some controversy, with Pascal
Pascal (programming language)
Pascal is an influential imperative and procedural programming language, designed in 1968/9 and published in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth as a small and efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring.A derivative known as Object Pascal...
purists unhappy with UCSD Pascal
UCSD Pascal
UCSD Pascal was a Pascal programming language system that ran on the UCSD p-System, a portable, highly machine-independent operating system. UCSD Pascal was first released in 1978...
extensions to the language. Some of these extensions are now present in modern Pascal
Pascal (programming language)
Pascal is an influential imperative and procedural programming language, designed in 1968/9 and published in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth as a small and efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring.A derivative known as Object Pascal...
compilers.
As the UCSD Pascal
UCSD Pascal
UCSD Pascal was a Pascal programming language system that ran on the UCSD p-System, a portable, highly machine-independent operating system. UCSD Pascal was first released in 1978...
Project grew, it was necessary for the project to leave UCSD by licensing the software to a commercial vendor. The UCSD concerns about taxes forced the project to be licensed to SofTech Microsystems, taking effect 1 June 1979.
Bowles then started a small software development company, later called "TeleSoft", which became a principal supplier of compilers for the Ada Programming Language worldwide. He took early Emeritus status in 1984 in order to concentrate his attentions at TeleSoft. After selling his part interest in TeleSoft in 1989, he participated for several years in the ISO committee responsible for the Ada standard of 1995.
Now retired, Bowles enjoys digital photography, mostly of the wild-flowers of San Diego County and birds of the south-western USA.
Students
Principal project members and students of Dr Kenneth L Bowles include:- Mark AllenMark Allen (software developer)Mark Allen is a software engineer, game programmer and game designer. As a student at the University of California, San Diego, Allen used UCSD Pascal to develop a 6502 interpreter for the Pascal language in 1978, along with Richard Gleaves...
- Richard Kaufmann
- Pete Lawrence
- Joel McCormackJoel McCormackJoel McCormack is the designer of the NCR Corporation version of the p-code machine which is a kind of Stack machine popular in the 1970s as the preferred way to implement new computing architectures and languages such as Pascal and BCPL...
- Mark Overgaard
- Keith Shillington
- Roger Sumner
- John Van Zandt
See also
- Notable UCSD People
- UCSD PascalUCSD PascalUCSD Pascal was a Pascal programming language system that ran on the UCSD p-System, a portable, highly machine-independent operating system. UCSD Pascal was first released in 1978...