Arthur Whitney (computer scientist)
{{short description|Canadian computer scientist}}
{{Infobox scientist
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| name = Arthur Whitney
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| image = Arthur Whitney 2019Wiki1.jpg
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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1957|10|20}}
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| nationality = Canadian
| fields = Computer Science
| workplaces = I.P. Sharp Associates
Stanford University 1985
Teknowledge
Morgan Stanley 1988-1993
Kx Systems 1993-2018 (co-founder)
Shakti Software 2018-present (co-founder)
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| education = University of Toronto, pure mathematics, graduate level
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| known_for = Programming languages: A+, k, q
Kx Systems (co-founder)
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Arthur Whitney (born October 20, 1957) is a Canadian computer scientist most notable for developing three programming languages inspired by APL: A+, k,{{cite web |url=http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1531242 |title=A Conversation with Arthur Whitney |publisher=ACM Queue|date= April 20, 2009 |access-date=June 1, 2016}} and q, and for co-founding the U.S. companies Kx Systems{{cite web|url=https://kx.com/arthur-interview.php|title=An Interview With Arthur Whitney, Kx CEO and Developer of Kx Technology|publisher=Kx Systems|date=January 4, 2004 |access-date=June 1, 2016}} and Shakti Software.
Career
Whitney studied pure mathematics at the graduate level at the University of Toronto in the early 1980s. He then worked at Stanford University. He was first exposed to APL when he was 11 by its inventor, Ken Iverson, a family friend. He later worked extensively with APL, first at I. P. Sharp Associates alongside Ken Iverson and Roger Hui among others. Whitney is recognized as having had an "enduring and significant influence on APL"{{Cite journal |last1=Hui |first1=Roger |last2=Kromberg |first2=Morten |date=January 2020 |title=APL since 1978 |doi=10.1145/3386319 |doi-access=free |journal=Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages |volume=4 |issue=HOPL |pages=1–108 |via=Association for Computing Machinery}} and he co-authored papers with both Ken Iverson and Roger Hui.{{Cite book|last1=Iverson|first1=Kenneth|last2=Whitney|first2=Arthur|title=Proceedings of the international conference on APL - APL '82 |chapter=Practical uses of a model of APL |date=July 1982|chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1145/800071.802236|pages=140–145|doi=10.1145/800071.802236 |isbn=0897910788 |s2cid=25543907 |via=Association for Computing Machinery}}{{Cite book|last1=Hui|first1=Roger|last2=Iverson|first2=Kenneth|last3=McDonnell|first3=E. E.|last4=Whitney|first4=Arthur|title=Conference proceedings on APL 90: For the future |chapter=APL\? |date=May 1990|chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1145/97808.97845|journal=ACM SIGAPL APL Quote Quad|volume=|pages=192–200|doi=10.1145/97808.97845 |isbn=089791371X |s2cid=235453656 |via=}} He also wrote the initial prototype of J, a terse and macro-heavy single page of code, in one afternoon, which then served as the model for J implementor, Roger Hui, and was responsible for suggesting the rank operators in J.{{cite journal |last=Iverson |first=Kenneth E. |author-link=Kenneth E. Iverson |year=1991 |title=A personal view of APL |journal=IBM Systems Journal |volume=30 |issue=4 |pages=582–593 |doi=10.1147/sj.304.0582 }}.{{cite book|last=Hui |first=Roger |title=An Implementation of J|publisher=Iverson Software, Inc. |year=1992 |location=Toronto |pages=74–75 |url=http://www.jsoftware.com/books/pdf/aioj.pdf }} In 1988, Whitney began working at Morgan Stanley developing financial applications.{{cite web|url=http://archive.vector.org.uk/art10501320|title=Impending kOS|publisher=Vector|first=Stephen|last= Taylor|access-date=June 1, 2016}} At Morgan Stanley, Whitney developed A+{{cite web|url=https://news.efinancialcareers.com/it-en/3001925/morgan-stanley-a-programming-language.html|title= "Morgan Stanley's A+ programming language"|first=Sarah|last= Butcher|access-date=March 5, 2020}} to facilitate migrating APL applications from IBM mainframe computers to a network of Sun Microsystems workstations. A+ had a smaller set of primitive functions and was designed for speed, and to handle large sets of time series data.
In 1993, Whitney left Morgan Stanley and co-founded Kx Systems with Janet Lustgarten, to commercialize his k programming language.{{cite web|url=http://www.computerweekly.com/blog/WITsend/Janet-Lustgarten-CEO-at-KX-Systems-on-shampoo-apps-databases-and-founding-her-own-company|title=Janet Lustgarten, CEO at Kx Systems, on Shampoo Apps, Databases and Founding Her Own Company|publisher=Computer Weekly|first=Clare |last=McDonald|date=June 1, 2011|access-date=June 1, 2016}} According to Paul Ford's 2015 [https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-paul-ford-what-is-code/ cover-story] for Businessweek, k is a programming language that is "famous for its brevity." The company signed an exclusive agreement with Union Bank of Switzerland and Whitney developed a variety of trading applications using k until the contract expired. At the outset of the contract Whitney developed the kdb database built on k.{{cite web|url=http://vector.org.uk/weblog/archive/000036.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070101213150/http://vector.org.uk/weblog/archive/000036.html|title=Q Language Widening the Appeal of Vectors|publisher=Vector.org|first=Simon|last=Garland|date=December 28, 2004|archive-date=January 1, 2007| access-date=June 1, 2016}} In 2003, Kx Systems released q, a new vector language that built upon k and the kdb+ database developed by Whitney.{{cite web|url=http://www.clustermonkey.net/Deep-Dive/working-down-the-column-the-kdb-community.html|title=Working Down the Column: The kdb+ Community|publisher=Cluster Monkey|first=Douglas |last=Eadline |date=September 9, 2014 |access-date=June 1, 2016}}
In 2018, First Derivatives bought out Whitney and Lustgarten's minority shares of Kx Systems.{{cite web|url=https://www.firstderivatives.com/news/fd-to-buy-out-minority-kx-systems-shareholders/|title=FD to buy out minority Kx Systems shareholders|date=July 2, 2018|access-date=Apr 1, 2019}} Whitney and Lustgarten then founded Shakti.{{cite web|url=https://shakti.com/about.php|title=Shakti (About)|access-date=Apr 1, 2019}}
The Shakti platform has a small memory footprint, and allows for fast deployment and processing of distributed elastic workloads. It can work with all kinds of datasets, including numerical, temporal and text data, whether structured or not.{{cite web|url=https://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/3002752/shakti-arthur-whitney.html|title= "The new data platform from the reclusive genius of banking IT"|first=Sarah|last= Butcher|access-date=March 5, 2020}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website|shakti.com}}, Shakti
- {{Official website|www.kx.com}}, Kx Systems
- {{Official website|www.jsoftware.com}}, Jsoftware
{{APL programming language}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitney, Arthur}}
Category:Canadian computer scientists
Category:I. P. Sharp Associates employees
Category:Programming language designers
Category:University of Alberta alumni
Category:University of Toronto alumni