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Mike Cowlishaw

 

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Mike Cowlishaw



 
 
Mike Cowlishaw is an IBM Fellow
IBM Fellow

An IBM Fellow is an appointed position at IBM made by IBM?s CEO. Typically only 4 or 5 IBM Fellows are appointed each year, at the annual Corporate Technical Recognition Event event in May or June....
 based at IBM UK’s Warwick
Warwick

Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England. The town lies upon the River Avon, Warwickshire, 18 km south of Coventry and 4 km west of Leamington Spa , with a population of 25,434 .....
 location, a Visiting Professor at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick
University of Warwick

The University of Warwick is a British campus university located on the outskirts of Coventry, West Midlands , England and is University of Warwick#Academic standards as one of the country's leading universities....
, and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
Royal Academy of Engineering

The Royal Academy of Engineering is a United Kingdom learned society concerned with engineering....
 (roughly the equivalent of the NAE
National Academy of Engineering

The United States National Academy of Engineering is a private, non-profit institution which was founded in 1964, under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the United States National Academy of Sciences, signed by Abraham Lincoln, in 1863....
 in the USA), the Institute of Engineering and Technology
Institute of Engineering and Technology

The Institute of Engineering and Technology Lucknow is a state government-funded engineering college in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India....
 (formerly IEE), and the British Computer Society
British Computer Society

The British Computer Society is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in Information Technology. Established in 1957, it is the largest United Kingdom-based professional body for computing....
.

ipt type="text/javascript">DisplayLink("http://speleotrove.com/memowiki/", "MemoWiki"), and decimal
Decimal

The decimal numeral system has 10 as its Base . It is the most widely used numeral system....
 arithmetic.

He has also contributed to and/or edited numerous computing standards, including ISO
International Organization for Standardization

The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO , is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations....
 (SGML, COBOL
COBOL

COBOL is one of the oldest programming languages still in active use. Its name is an acronym for COmmon Business-Oriented Language, defining its primary domain in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments....
, C
C (programming language)

C is a general-purpose computer programming language originally developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories to implement the Unix operating system....
, C++
C++

C++ is a general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as a middle-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level programming language and low-level programming language language features....
), BSI
BSI

BSI is a three letter acronym that can stand for:* The Baker Street Irregulars, a fictional group featured in Sherlock Holmes stories* Banca della Svizzera Italiana...
 (SGML, C), ANSI
American National Standards Institute

The American National Standards Institute or ANSI is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States....
 (REXX), IETF (HTTP 1.0/RFC 1945), W3C (XML Schema), ECMA
ECMA

Ecma or ECMA may refer to one of the following:Ecma is short for*Ecma International , formerly : the European Computer Manufacturers Association , an international standards organization for Information Communication Technology and Consumer Electronics ...
 (ECMAScript
ECMAScript

ECMAScript is a scripting language, standardized by Ecma International in the ECMA-262 Specification . The language is widely used on the World Wide Web, and is often confused with JavaScript or JScript, the two major Programming language dialect from which ECMAScript was standardized....
, C#, CLI
CLI

CLI may refer to:...
), and IEEE (754 decimal floating-point).

ecent years, he has been working on aspects of decimal arithmetic; his proposal for an improved Java BigDecimal class (JSR
JSR

JSR is an abbreviation in/for:*The 2001 Sega Dreamcast video game Jet Set Radio.*Sexology, for the Journal of Sex Research published by the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality;...
 13) is now included in Java 5.0, and in 2002, he invented a refinement of Chen-Ho encoding
Chen-Ho encoding

Chen-Ho encoding is an alternate system of Binary numeral system encoding for decimal digits.The traditional system of binary encoding for decimal digits, known as Binary-coded decimal , uses four bits to encode each digit, resulting in significant wastage of binary data bandwidth ....
 known as Densely Packed Decimal
Densely Packed Decimal

Densely packed decimal is a system of Binary coding encoding for decimal digits.The traditional system of binary encoding for decimal digits, known as Binary-coded decimal , uses four bits to encode each digit, resulting in significant wastage of binary data bandwidth ....
 encoding.






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Encyclopedia


Mike Cowlishaw is an IBM Fellow
IBM Fellow

An IBM Fellow is an appointed position at IBM made by IBM?s CEO. Typically only 4 or 5 IBM Fellows are appointed each year, at the annual Corporate Technical Recognition Event event in May or June....
 based at IBM UK’s Warwick
Warwick

Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England. The town lies upon the River Avon, Warwickshire, 18 km south of Coventry and 4 km west of Leamington Spa , with a population of 25,434 .....
 location, a Visiting Professor at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick
University of Warwick

The University of Warwick is a British campus university located on the outskirts of Coventry, West Midlands , England and is University of Warwick#Academic standards as one of the country's leading universities....
, and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
Royal Academy of Engineering

The Royal Academy of Engineering is a United Kingdom learned society concerned with engineering....
 (roughly the equivalent of the NAE
National Academy of Engineering

The United States National Academy of Engineering is a private, non-profit institution which was founded in 1964, under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the United States National Academy of Sciences, signed by Abraham Lincoln, in 1863....
 in the USA), the Institute of Engineering and Technology
Institute of Engineering and Technology

The Institute of Engineering and Technology Lucknow is a state government-funded engineering college in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India....
 (formerly IEE), and the British Computer Society
British Computer Society

The British Computer Society is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in Information Technology. Established in 1957, it is the largest United Kingdom-based professional body for computing....
.

Career at IBM


Cowlishaw joined IBM in 1974 as an electronic engineer but is best known as a programmer and writer. He is known for designing and implementing the REXX
REXX

REXX is an Interpreted language programming language which was developed at IBM. It is a structured high-level programming language which was designed to be both easy to learn and easy to read....
 programming language (published in IBM Systems Journal in 1984) and the NetRexx
REXX

REXX is an Interpreted language programming language which was developed at IBM. It is a structured high-level programming language which was designed to be both easy to learn and easy to read....
 programming language (1996–1997), his work on color perception and image processing (1982–1985), the STET
STET (text editor)

The STET text editor may have been the first folding editor; its first version was written in 1977 by Mike Cowlishaw. The editor runs on the IBM Conversational Monitor System operating system....
 folding editor
Folding editor

A folding editor is a text editor which supports text folding or code folding, a mechanism allowing the user to hide and reveal blocks of text—usually named....
 (1977), the LEXX live parsing editor (1985, possibly the first editor with color highlighting) for the Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press , is a comprehensive dictionary of the English language. Two fully-bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989; as of December 2008 the dictionary's current editors have completed a quarter of the third edition....
, electronic publishing, SGML applications, , the IBM Jargon file () through 1990, Java
Java (programming language)

Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java ....
-related languages, the Acorn System 1
Acorn System 1

The Acorn System 1, initially called the Acorn Microcomputer , was an early 8-bit microcomputer for hobbyists, based on the MOS Technology 6502 central processing unit, and produced by United Kingdom company Acorn Computers Ltd from 1979....
 , , and decimal
Decimal

The decimal numeral system has 10 as its Base . It is the most widely used numeral system....
 arithmetic.

He has also contributed to and/or edited numerous computing standards, including ISO
International Organization for Standardization

The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO , is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations....
 (SGML, COBOL
COBOL

COBOL is one of the oldest programming languages still in active use. Its name is an acronym for COmmon Business-Oriented Language, defining its primary domain in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments....
, C
C (programming language)

C is a general-purpose computer programming language originally developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories to implement the Unix operating system....
, C++
C++

C++ is a general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as a middle-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level programming language and low-level programming language language features....
), BSI
BSI

BSI is a three letter acronym that can stand for:* The Baker Street Irregulars, a fictional group featured in Sherlock Holmes stories* Banca della Svizzera Italiana...
 (SGML, C), ANSI
American National Standards Institute

The American National Standards Institute or ANSI is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States....
 (REXX), IETF (HTTP 1.0/RFC 1945), W3C (XML Schema), ECMA
ECMA

Ecma or ECMA may refer to one of the following:Ecma is short for*Ecma International , formerly : the European Computer Manufacturers Association , an international standards organization for Information Communication Technology and Consumer Electronics ...
 (ECMAScript
ECMAScript

ECMAScript is a scripting language, standardized by Ecma International in the ECMA-262 Specification . The language is widely used on the World Wide Web, and is often confused with JavaScript or JScript, the two major Programming language dialect from which ECMAScript was standardized....
, C#, CLI
CLI

CLI may refer to:...
), and IEEE (754 decimal floating-point).

Decimal arithmetic

In recent years, he has been working on aspects of decimal arithmetic; his proposal for an improved Java BigDecimal class (JSR
JSR

JSR is an abbreviation in/for:*The 2001 Sega Dreamcast video game Jet Set Radio.*Sexology, for the Journal of Sex Research published by the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality;...
 13) is now included in Java 5.0, and in 2002, he invented a refinement of Chen-Ho encoding
Chen-Ho encoding

Chen-Ho encoding is an alternate system of Binary numeral system encoding for decimal digits.The traditional system of binary encoding for decimal digits, known as Binary-coded decimal , uses four bits to encode each digit, resulting in significant wastage of binary data bandwidth ....
 known as Densely Packed Decimal
Densely Packed Decimal

Densely packed decimal is a system of Binary coding encoding for decimal digits.The traditional system of binary encoding for decimal digits, known as Binary-coded decimal , uses four bits to encode each digit, resulting in significant wastage of binary data bandwidth ....
 encoding. Cowlishaw's formed the proposal for the decimal parts of the IEEE 754 standard revision
IEEE 754 revision

This article describes the revision process of the IEEE 754 standard, 2000-2008, and the changes included in the revision. For a description of the standard itself, see IEEE 754-2008....
, as well as being followed by many implementations, such as Python
Python (programming language)

Python is a general-purpose high-level programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python's core syntax and semantics are Minimalism , while the standard library is large and comprehensive....
 and SAP
Sap

Sap may refer to:* Plant sap, the fluid transported in xylem cells or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant* Baton #Blackjack, another word for a blackjack, an easily concealed Club ....
 Netweaver
NetWeaver

SAP NetWeaver is SAP AG's integrated technology platform and is the technical foundation for all SAP applications since the SAP Business Suite. SAP NetWeaver is marketed as a Service-oriented architecture application and Enterprise application integration platform....
. His decNumber decimal package is also available as open source under several licenses and is now part of GCC
GNU Compiler Collection

The GNU Compiler Collection is a compiler system produced by the GNU Project supporting various programming languages. GCC is a key component of the GNU toolchain....
, and his proposals for decimal hardware have been adopted by IBM and are integrated into the IBM Power6
POWER6

The POWER6 microprocessor is IBM's follow-on to the POWER5. It is part of the eCLipz, said to have a goal of converging IBM's server hardware where practical ....
 and IBM System z10
IBM System z10

IBM System z10 is the latest line of IBM Mainframe computer. The z10 Enterprise Class was announced on February 26, 2008. On October 21, 2008 IBM announced the z10 Business Class , a scaled down version of the z10 EC....
 processor cores, and in numerous IBM software products such as DB2
DB2

* Aston Martin DB2, an English sports car* Dark Beginning 2, a Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game booster pack* IBM DB2, in computing, a relational database management system, more recently coined a "data server" by IBM...
, TPF
Transaction Processing Facility

TPF is an International Business Machines real-time operating system for IBM mainframe descended from the IBM System/360 family, including zSeries and ZSeries....
 (in Sabre
Sabre (computer system)

Sabre is a computer reservations system/global distribution system used by airlines, railways, hotels, travel agents and other travel companies....
), WebSphere MQ, operating systems, and C and PL/I compilers.

Other activities


Outside computing, he also is known as a caver. A life member of the NSS
National Speleological Society

The National Speleological Society is an organization formed in 1941 to advance the caving, conservation, study, and understanding of caves in the United States....
, he wrote classic articles in the 1970s and 1980s on battery technology and on the shock strength of caving ropes, and caved in the UK, New England, Spain, and Mexico. He still appears to cave in Spain with and designs LED-based caving lamps etc.

External links





Books

  • The NetRexx Language, Cowlishaw, M. F., ISBN 0-13-806332-X, Prentice-Hall, 1997


  • The REXX Language, Cowlishaw, M. F., in English: ISBN 0-13-780651-5, (second edition) 1990; in German: ISBN 3-446-15195-8, Carl Hanser Verlag, 1988; in Japanese: ISBN 4-7649-0136-6, Kindai-kagaku-sha, 1988