Leonard H. Tower Jr.

Infobox_Scientist
name = Leonard H. Tower Jr.


caption = Len Tower wearing League for Programming Freedom and "No Smoking" badges (c. 1996)
birth_date = birth date and age|1949|6|17
birth_place = Astoria, Queens, New York, New York, U.S.
residence = Somerville, MA, U.S., Earth
nationality = American
field = Activist, Software designer, Biologist
work_institution = MIT, Free Software Foundation
alma_mater = MIT, Brentwood HS
known_for = GNU diff, gcc
societies = Free Software Foundation,
League for Programming Freedom
prizes = Vigil Honor, Order of the Arrow;
Eagle Scout, Boy Scouts of America
website =

Leonard "Len" H. Tower Jr. (born June 17, 1949) is a hacker and activist in the free software movement, environmentalist, artist, poet, and gardener. An Eagle Scout, Tower was also awarded the Vigil Honor in the Order of the Arrow.Tower, Leonard H. (2006) " [http://www.art.net/Studios/Hackers/Tower/bio.html An autobiography in progress of Leonard (Len) H. Tower Jr.,] " "Art.Net" studio web site, accessed 27 September 2006.] In 1971, he received a B.S. in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he held several management roles at " [http://www-tech.mit.edu/ The Tech] ," the student newspaper, [ [http://www-tech.mit.edu/archives/VOL_092/TECH_V092_S0035_P004.pdf "The Tech" MIT student newspaper masthead] , 15 February 1972, page 4.] and became active in Alpha Phi Omega [ [http://people.csail.mit.edu/gremio/AXcoAPO-Family-Tree.cgi?name=Len%20Tower;debug=;find=; Len Tower family tree] from the [http://web.mit.edu/apo/www/ Alpha Chi chapter,] Section 96, Region 1, of Alpha Phi Omega, membership database accessed 27 September 2006.] and other service organizations as he has remained throughout his life. He is well known for his software development and community relations for, and his organization, administration, and support of the GNU Project's Free Software Foundation and the League for Programming Freedom. In addition to being an original coauthor of gcc and GNU diff as used in MediaWiki, Len is an avid cyclist and pedestrian who has never owned a car.

GNU Project

As a member of the GNU Project, Tower was one of the founders and an initial director of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) from 1985 through 1997. [cite journal | last = Heuer | first = Karl | title = GNU's Who | journal = GNU's Bulletin | volume = 1 | issue = 23 | publisher = Free Software Foundation | date = July 1997 | url = http://www.gnu.org/bulletins/bull23.html | accessdate = 2006-09-24 ] He was the first full time staff at the FSF, working on the creation of the GNU C compiler (now known as GNU Compiler Collection), rewriting it from an extended dialect of Pascal which was difficult to bootstrap, into portable C, and redesigning parts of the parser, register transfer language generator and definitions, and the VAX machine description. [Stallman, Richard M. (2001) " [http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-2.95.3/gcc_23.html#SEC260 Contributors to GCC,] " in [http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-2.95.3/gcc.html#SEC_Top "Using and Porting the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)"] for gcc version 2.95 (Cambridge, Mass.: Free Software Foundation)] Quoting Richard Stallman in February, 1986:

:"Although I have a portable C and Pascal compiler, it has a serious drawback: it is a very large program, and intrinsically cannot be made smaller. It is also very hard to bootstrap.:"The problem is that most of the compiler is written in Pastel, a super-hairy extended Pascal, and it is also the sole compiler for that language. To make it smaller, we must eliminate the hair needed to compile Pastel; then we will not be able to compile Pastel, so it must all be rewritten into C.:"Len Tower, the sole full-time GNU staff person, is working on this, with one or two assistants." [cite journal | last = Stallman | first = Richard M. | title = GNU Status| journal = GNU's Bulletin | volume = 1 | issue = 1 | publisher = Free Software Foundation | date = February 1986 | url = http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/gnu/bull/01/bull01.txt | accessdate = 2006-09-26 ]

In March 1987, Tower posted Stallman's announcement of the first beta release of gcc. [Tower, Leonard (1987) " [http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.misc/msg/32eda22392c20f98 GNU C compiler beta test release,] " "comp.lang.misc" USENET newsgroup posting; see also [http://gcc.gnu.org/releases.html#timeline the gcc release timeline] .]

Tower was also one of the creators of GNU diff, a file comparison utility. [Tower, Leonard H., "et al." (2001) [http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/diffutils/AUTHORS?rev=1.3&root=diffutils&view=auto "AUTHORS" file] , revision 1.3, " [http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/diffutils GNU diff and patch utilities] " (Cambridge, Mass.: Free Software Foundation)] "Diff" has been incorporated into hundreds of other programs, including MediaWiki, where it was "extracted verbatim from analyze.c (GNU diffutils-2.7)." [Manske, Magnus, "et al." (2002-6) " [http://svn.wikimedia.org/doc/DifferenceEngine_8php-source.html includes/DifferenceEngine.php] ," line 1025, from the "MediaWiki" source code, accessed 27 September 2006.]

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Tower spoke at USENIX conferences as the official representative of the FSF. [Smallwood, Kevin C. (30 December 1991) " [http://groups.google.com/group/comp.org.usenix/msg/49057943438c1c8f Updated BOF Schedule for San Francisco USENIX Conference,] " "comp.org.usenix" USENET posting; see also [http://groups.google.com/group/comp.org.usenix/msg/a6c8e0d54cde0ab8 Noah Friedman's comments of 19 June 1992.] ] In 1987, the FSF described Tower primarily as a programmer who also did some administrative tasks; [cite journal | last = Rubin | first = Paul | title = GNU's Who | journal = GNU's Bulletin | volume = 1 | issue = 1 | publisher = Free Software Foundation | date = June 1987 | url = http://www.gnu.org/bulletins/bull3.html | accessdate = 2006-09-24 ] he managed mailing lists, newsgroups, and requests for information. [cite journal | last = Tuttle | first = J. | coauthors = Chassell, R.; Tower, L. | title = GNU's Who | journal = GNU's Bulletin | volume = 1 | issue = 4 | publisher = Free Software Foundation | date = February 1988 | url = http://www.gnu.org/bulletins/bull4.html | accessdate = 2006-09-24 ] [cite journal | last = Goldstein | first = S.| coauthors = Chassell, R.; Tower, L. | title = GNU's Who | journal = GNU's Bulletin | volume = 1 | issue = 22 | publisher = Free Software Foundation | date = January 1997 | url = http://www.gnu.org/bulletins/bull22.html | accessdate = 2006-09-24 ]

League for Programming Freedom

Tower was an early member of the League for Programming Freedom. Through 1991, Len was one of the league's top two speakers, the other being Richard Stallman. [cite journal | last = MacPhee | first = Spike R. | title = Speaking Volunteers | journal = Programming Freedom | volume = 1 | issue = 1 | publisher = League for Programming Freedom | date = November 1991 | url = http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/Newsletter/programming.freedom.1.html#volunteer | accessdate = 2006-09-24 ]

Notes and References

External links

* [http://www.art.net/Studios/Hackers/Tower/ Studio pages] at Art.Net
* [http://www.mit.edu/~tower/ Web site] at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology