Joe Ossanna | |
|---|---|
| Born | Joseph Frank Ossanna, Jr. December 10, 1928 |
| Died | November 28, 1977(1977-11-28) (aged 48) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Wayne State University (B.S.E.E., 1952) |
| Occupation(s) | electrical engineer and computer programmer |
| Known for | Multics andUnix operating systems and software applications atBell Telephone Laboratories |
Joseph Frank Ossanna, Jr. (December 10, 1928 – November 28, 1977) was an American electrical engineer and computer programmer who worked as a member of the technical staff at theBell Telephone Laboratories inMurray Hill, New Jersey. He became actively engaged in the software design ofMultics (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service), a general-purposeoperating system used at Bell.[1]
Ossanna received hisBachelor of Engineering (B.S.E.E.) fromWayne State University in 1952.[1]
At Bell Telephone Labs, Ossanna was concerned with low-noise amplifier design, feedback amplifier design, satellite look-angle prediction, mobile radio fading theory, and statistical data processing. He was also concerned with the operation of the Murray Hill Computation Center and was actively engaged in the software design of Multics.[1]
After learning how to program thePDP-7 computer,Ken Thompson,Dennis Ritchie, Joe Ossanna, andRudd Canaday began to program the operating system that was designed earlier by Thompson (Unics, later namedUnix). After writing the file system and a set of basic utilities, and assembler, a core of the Unix operating system was established.[2][3]Doug McIlroy later wrote, "Ossanna, with the instincts of a motor pool sergeant, equipped our first lab and attracted the first outside users."[4]
When the team got aGraphic Systems CAT phototypesetter for making camera-ready copy of professional articles for publication and patent applications, Ossanna wrote a version ofnroff that would drive it. It was dubbedtroff, fortypesetter roff.[5][4] So it was that in 1973 he authored the first version oftroff forUnix entirely written inPDP-11assembly language.[1] However, two years later, Ossanna re-wrote the code in theC programming language. He had planned another rewrite which was supposed to improve its usability but this work was taken over byBrian Kernighan.[6]
Ossanna was a member of theAssociation for Computing Machinery,Sigma Xi, andTau Beta Pi.[1]
He died as a consequence of heart disease.[7]
Authority control databases: Academics |
|---|
