Anthony James Barr | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1940-09-24)September 24, 1940 (age 84) |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Tony Barr, Jim Barr |
| Alma mater | North Carolina State University |
| Occupation(s) | Programming language designer,Software engineer,Inventor |
Anthony James Barr (born September 24, 1940), akaTony Barr orJim Barr, is an Americanprogramming language designer,software engineer andinventor. He is best known for developing theSAS software suite and for co-foundingSAS Institute. SAS software is used fordata management,analytics andartificial intelligence. Among his other notable contributions are techniques for automated lumber yield optimization and theAutomated Classification of Medical Entities (ACME).
Barr was born in New York City and raised inSummit, New Jersey,[1] where he graduated fromSummit High School in 1958.[2][3] Growing up, he was inspired by the biographies ofBen Franklin,Marconi,Alexander Graham Bell, Wright Brothers and Sikorsky as well as visits to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and the Museum of Natural History in New York City.[4]
Barr received a BS in Applied Physics (with honors) at North Carolina State University in 1962, during which time he began an assistantship at the NCSU Computing Center. In 1963, he received aNational Science Foundation Fellowship to study physical oceanography atWoods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship at NCSU. He received his MS in Physics at NCSU in 1968.[5]
Barr was named 1995 Distinguished Alumnus, North Carolina State University, College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.[5]
In 1966, Barr began working on theSAS System, a family of statistical analysis software used in data management, machine learning and analytics. It is now widely used internationally inscience,government,industry, andacademia.[6]
In September 1966, Barr presented the conceptual ideas of SAS to members of the Committee on Statistical Software of theUniversity Statisticians of the Southern Experiment Stations (USSES) inAthens, Georgia.[7]
Barr had earlier created ananalysis-of-variance modeling language inspired by the notation of statisticianMaurice Kendall. He developed it inassembly language on theIBM 1410, as a graduate student atNorth Carolina State University from 1962 to 1963. Dr. A. Grandage, author ofIBM 650 analysis-of-variance programs, advised on some of the statistical computations.[8] This was followed by a multiple regression program with a flexible input format and with algebraic transformation of variables, in 1963 to 1964. Drawing on those programs, along with his experience with structured data files, he created SAS, placing statistical procedures into a formatted file framework.[7]
Barr's experience with structured data files was gained while working on theFormatted File System, (seebelow). From 1966 to 1968, Barr developed the fundamental structure and language of SAS.[7] In 1968, Barr began collaborating with other programmers,[9] most prominentlyJames Goodnight, a student at North Carolina State University who became a co-leader of the project and developed procedures forgeneral linear modelling for the system.[10] Barr designed and implemented the programming language, data management, report writing, and systems areas of the evolving system.[9]
SAS 71, the first official version of SAS, was released in 1971.John Sall joined the project in 1973 and developed various procedures, including procedures foreconometrics, data management and matrix manipulation.[10] In 1976, Goodnight decided to begin developing and marketing SAS full time,[11] and theSAS Institute, Inc. was incorporated by Barr, Goodnight, Sall, andJane Helwig, with Barr holding the largest share (40%). He sold his shares in 1979.[7]
Barr created theACME program for theNational Center for Health Statistics from 1967 to 1969.[12]
Barr with A.G. Mullin computerized and sold a manufacturing system for cutting the most usable lumber from each board. According to the National Association of Furniture Manufacturers, this innovation saved millions for the industry.[13]
In 1968, Barr pioneered aCompile and go system for IBM OS/360 marketed by University Computing Company. The use of the Loader cut typical program testing times by 25 percent.[14][15] IBM did not offer the equivalent Loader for over 18 months after the Barr Loader was commercially available.[16]
In 1971, Barr created the first non-IBMHASPterminal emulator. Marketed by the University Computing Company (UCC), the HASP emulator gave a significant performance increase over theIBM 2780 emulator he had developed for UCC in 1969. The emulators were developed on thePDP-8 minicomputer and allowed COPE terminals to communicate with the IBM/360 andIBM/370.[16]
In 1971, Barr also implemented the HASP workstation for M & M Computer Industries,Orange, California. Implemented on theData General Nova minicomputer, the program became theSinger Corporation Remote Batch Terminal. Both Singer and UCC sold their terminal divisions toHarris Corporation, which continued to market the products.[16]
In 1983, Barr developed hardware and software for performing HASP remote job entry communication on the IBM PC. His company, Barr Systems, Inc., marketed and sold Barr HASP,[17] and went on to implement and supportBisync andSNASDLCworkstations andgateways, along with otherdata communications and output management products.[18]
Barr was employed with IBM Federal Systems Division atthe Pentagon,Washington, D.C. from 1964 to 1966.[19] There he worked on theNIPS Formatted File System. FFS, a generalized data base management system for retrieval and report writing, was one of the first data management systems to take advantage of defined file structure for data storage and retrieval efficiency.[20]
Assigned to work with theNational Military Command Center, theinformation processing branch of theJoint Chiefs of Staff, Barr rewrote and enhanced FFS, implementing three of its five major components: retrieval, sorting, and file update. His work featured the innovation of a uniform lexical analyzer for all languages in the system with a uniform method of handling all error messages.[7]
Working with FFS introduced Barr to the potential of the defined file structure, which was to become a central concept of SAS (above).[7]
In 2021, Barr and his wife Olga donated $1 million to theCade Museum for Creativity and Invention to support the museum's youth programming. The museum named the Tony & Olga Barr Gallery in their honor.[4]
{{cite book}}:|website= ignored (help){{cite book}}:|website= ignored (help)