Lee E. McMahon
Encyclopedia
Lee E. McMahon was an American computer scientist
. He was a graduate of St. Louis University and obtained a Ph.D.
in Psychology
at Harvard. He worked for Bell labs
from 1963 until 1989, and is best known for his contributions to early versions of the Unix
operating system, in particular the sed
stream editor. He contributed to the development of comm, qsort, grep, index, cref, cu, and Datakit
He also devised the McMahon system tournament
.
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....
. He was a graduate of St. Louis University and obtained a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in Psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
at Harvard. He worked for Bell labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
from 1963 until 1989, and is best known for his contributions to early versions of the Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
operating system, in particular the sed
Sed
sed is a Unix utility that parses text and implements a programming language which can apply transformations to such text. It reads input line by line , applying the operation which has been specified via the command line , and then outputs the line. It was developed from 1973 to 1974 as a Unix...
stream editor. He contributed to the development of comm, qsort, grep, index, cref, cu, and Datakit
He also devised the McMahon system tournament
McMahon system tournament
A McMahon system tournament is a generalized case of the Swiss system tournament, used for games such as go and chess.Like a Swiss tournament, all players compete in the same number of rounds against various other players. Unlike Swiss, the players do not all start with zero points, but are awarded...
.