Melvin Conway
Encyclopedia
Melvin Edward Conway was an early computer scientist, computer programmer, and hacker who coined what's now known as Conway's Law
: "Organizations which design systems are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations."
Apart from the above, Conway is perhaps most famous for his seminal paper on coroutines. and for his exposition of UNCOL
in 1958.
Conway wrote an assembler
for the Burroughs model 220 computer called SAVE. The name SAVE was not an acronym, but a feature: programmers lost fewer punched card
decks because they all had "SAVE" written on them.
In the 1970s and 1980s, he was involved with the MUMPS
medical computer language and system language standard specification for the National Bureau of Standards
. He also wrote a reference book on MUMPS.
Conway's Law
Conway's Law is an adage named after computer programmer Melvin Conway, who introduced the idea in 1968:...organizations which design systems ... are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations....
: "Organizations which design systems are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations."
Apart from the above, Conway is perhaps most famous for his seminal paper on coroutines. and for his exposition of UNCOL
UNCOL
UNCOL was a proposed universal intermediate language for compilers introduced by Melvin E. Conway in 1958. It was never fully specified or implemented; in many ways it was more a concept than a language....
in 1958.
Conway wrote an assembler
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
for the Burroughs model 220 computer called SAVE. The name SAVE was not an acronym, but a feature: programmers lost fewer punched card
Punched card
A punched card, punch card, IBM card, or Hollerith card is a piece of stiff paper that contains digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions...
decks because they all had "SAVE" written on them.
In the 1970s and 1980s, he was involved with the MUMPS
MUMPS
MUMPS , or alternatively M, is a programming language created in the late 1960s, originally for use in the healthcare industry. It was designed for the production of multi-user database-driven applications...
medical computer language and system language standard specification for the National Bureau of Standards
National Institute of Standards and Technology
The National Institute of Standards and Technology , known between 1901 and 1988 as the National Bureau of Standards , is a measurement standards laboratory, otherwise known as a National Metrological Institute , which is a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce...
. He also wrote a reference book on MUMPS.
Education
- Ph.D. Mathematics, Case Western Reserve UniversityCase Western Reserve UniversityCase Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...
(1961) - M.S. Physics, California Institute of TechnologyCalifornia Institute of TechnologyThe California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
- B.S. Physics, Case Western Reserve University
Selected publications
- Melvin E. Conway, "Design of a separable transition-diagram compiler", Communications of the ACM, Vol. 6, No. 7, July 1963
- Melvin E. Conway. "How do committees invent?", DatamationDatamationDatamation was a print computer magazine published in the United States between 1957 and 1998. When first published it wasn't clear there would be a significant market for a computer magazine given how few computers there were...
, 14(4):28--31, April 1968