
A Catalogue of Optimizing Transformations (1971) [pdf] - luu
https://www.clear.rice.edu/comp512/Lectures/Papers/1971-allen-catalog.pdf
======
gumby
Notes from an earlier era, when computer science was still emerging
(separating from mathematics & engineering) and a lot of legitimate work was
still “stamp collecting”.*

I remember (I was a kid but watched it — I was fascinated by all things
computing thanks to the Apollo program) that in the 70s and early 80s nobody
had any idea who might make good a good programmer so would hire musicians,
philosophy majors, poets, and math majors. Also a disproportionate number of
women, still a small number in that more sexist age, but more than traditional
engineering professions in that age. And you can see reflected in the two
authors of this paper.

* I used the scare quotes around “stamp collecting” in case the term is unfamiliar and comes off as denigrating, which it is not. The term is not mine: it reflects that most fields start out that way (botany, zoology, biology, chemistry, physics...) until there is a large enough corpus for people to start reasoning about them.

~~~
saagarjha
Unfortunately Allen passed away quite recently:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24066832](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24066832).
Her contributions to optimizations that form the basis of compilers today is
substantial.

------
dang
This video goes into it:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fOumvtTZO8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fOumvtTZO8)

(via
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24189188](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24189188),
but no comments there)

------
andrewnc
This is neat, does anyone know what font this is?

~~~
watersb
That looks like Pica from an IBM Selectric typewriter.

IBM in 1971, probably photo typeset. The heading type and lines look like
those rub-off transfers from Letraset.

I'm just guessing. I do recall doing some paste-up direct from a
phototypesetting machine at a small town newspaper around 1981, but I don't
recall how that worked. We just did page layout with wax-coated positives, the
machine spit those out by magic. Middle school, details are vague.

But I put in some hours on my Dad's Selectric. It was awesome.

~~~
molofaha
I happen to have been looking at IBM typewriter fonts recently --
[https://archive.org/details/IBM-SelectricIITypewriter-
Correc...](https://archive.org/details/IBM-SelectricIITypewriter-
CorrectingSelectricTypewriter-OperatingInstructions/page/n27/mode/2up) \-- so
I can say it's actually Courier; the uppercase A is an easy giveaway. You can
see all the other body fonts there too; Light Italic for the italics, except
for some keywords at the start of lists which are Courier Italic; the page
headers are Letter Gothic, as are I think the headings (though I thought it
was lowercase Orator at first so I think these fonts are all running together
for me).

~~~
watersb
Excellent! Thanks!

This got me browsing online for the font balls for these things. Dangerous; my
nerd space is overdue for purge as it is.

But have at it:
[https://www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/102974032](https://www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/102974032)

