Computer pioneer dies at 84
Bob Bemer helped develop key coding system, technology that gave birth to
'escape' function.
June 25, 2004: 9:21 AM EDT
DALLAS (Reuters) - Bob Bemer, a computer pioneer who helped develop the ASCII
coding system and the technology that led to the "escape" key on keyboards, has
died at the age of 84 after battling cancer, his caregiver said Thursday.
Bemer died Tuesday at his home near Possum Kingdom Lake, Texas, 120 miles west
of Dallas.
He worked for several years for IBM Corp. in the late 1950s and 1960s, and it
was there that he helped develop the American Standard Code for Information
Interchange. ASCII is a format code used in most computers in the world that
allows them to read text as a binary number.
Bemer is also credited with writing the computer sequence that allows for the
"escape" command. The escape command was seen as a major innovation in
computing because it allowed users to move backward or sideways in a program.
He won the Computer Pioneer Award in 2002 from the IEEE Computer Society for
his work in making it easier for people to move text and images on a computer
screen.
"Computer power is work power, but it is also knowledge power, of the kind that
has been used throughout history for aggrandizement as well as the good of the
people," Bemer wrote on his Web site.
=====
Steven W. Buehler | steven@sanctuaryweb.org
Web Site: http://www.sanctuaryweb.org | Music Site: http://renaiture.iuma.com
AOL Instant Messenger: StevenBuehlerFL | Yahoo!: swbuehler | MSN: stevenwbuehler@msn.com | ICQ: 3565750
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked
Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages
posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 18:16:10 EDT