Gavin Wraith |
|
I retired from a Readership in Mathematics at [Sussex University] (UK) in 1999. I was chairman of the newly founded department of Computer Science in 1985.
I think Sussex was the first place in the UK to use micros for maths teaching - in the late 70s. My own first micro was an Acorn Atom (with 12K user RAM!). I got interested in functional programming languages, and was amazed at the convergence of ideas between advances in design of FP languages and category theory. I was a founding member of the [PSSL] (Peripatetic Seminar on Sheaves and Logic) which trained a whole generation of computer scientists - it grew out of Dana Scott's seminar at Oxford.
Like ReubenThomas I have always been fascinated by small elegant languages and virtual machines. I was long on the lookout for something to improve upon the BBC BASIC built into [RISC OS]. Lua was the answer to my prayers. I devised [RiscLua] as a port of Lua to Risc OS with the minimum extensions necessary to give it the same functionality as BBC BASIC for access to the operating system.