Robert Dewar

Dewar was born in Oxford, England, one of two sons of the theoretical chemist Michael J. S. Dewar and Mary Dewar, née Williamson (d. 1994), a historian and scholar of English Tudor history.{{cite news |last=Burkhart |first=Ford |date=2 November 1997 |title=Dr. Michael J. S. Dewar, 79; Research Led to Drug Advances |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/02/us/dr-michael-j-s-dewar-79-research-led-to-drug-advances.html |access-date=18 February 2017 |archive-date=26 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171226202358/http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/02/us/dr-michael-j-s-dewar-79-research-led-to-drug-advances.html |url-status=live }}{{cite book |last1=Michl |first1=Josef |last2=Fox |first2=Marye Anne |year=1999 |chapter=Michael J. S. Dewar |title=Biographical Memoirs |volume=77 |pages=65–77 |publisher=National Academy Press |isbn=0-309-59373-5 |chapter-url=http://www.nap.edu/html/biomems/mdewar.pdf |access-date=20 May 2011 |archive-date=21 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021124850/http://www.nap.edu//html/biomems/mdewar.pdf |url-status=live }} In 1959, he moved with his parents from England to Chicago, Illinois, when his father accepted a teaching job at the University of Chicago.{{cite magazine |last=Kravetz |first=Daniel |date=September 2015 |title=Robert Dewar 1945–2015 |magazine=The Palace Peeper |publisher=The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of New York |volume=LXXX |issue=1 |page=3}} Dewar attended the University of Chicago, earning a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in 1964, and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in chemistry in 1968.{{cite press release |last=Ayre |first=Jamie |date=2 July 2015 |url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150702005350/en/AdaCore-President-Robert-B.-K.-Dewar-1945-2015 |title=AdaCore President Robert B. K. Dewar (1945-2015) |website=Business Wire |access-date=26 October 2020 |archive-date=9 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220709103410/https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150702005350/en/AdaCore-President-Robert-B.-K.-Dewar-1945-2015 |url-status=live }} He began to work with computers during graduate school.{{cite news |author= |date=22–24 July 2015 |title=Robert B.K. Dewar: Obituary |url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?pid=175345530 |work=The New York Times |access-date=11 August 2015 |archive-date=20 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120014103/https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?pid=175345530 |url-status=live }}

Dewar was first Assistant Professor of Information Science and later Associate Professor of Computer Science at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) from 1968 to 1975, before becoming Research Associate Professor of Computer Science at New York University (NYU) in 1975, where he was Full Professor of Computer Science from 1976 to 2005, and becoming chair of the department.{{cite news |author= |date=7 July 2015 |url=https://www.iit.edu/news/iit-computer-science-pioneer-robert-bk-dewar-passes-away |title=IIT Computer Science Pioneer Robert B.K. Dewar Passes Away |website=Illinois Tech |publisher=Illinois Institute of Technology |access-date=26 October 2020 |archive-date=29 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029145318/https://www.iit.edu/news/iit-computer-science-pioneer-robert-bk-dewar-passes-away |url-status=live }}

He was involved with developing international standards in programming and informatics, as a member of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) IFIP Working Group 2.1 (WG 2.1) on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi,{{cite web |url=https://ifipwg21wiki.cs.kuleuven.be/IFIP21/Profile |title=Profile of IFIP Working Group 2.1 |last1=Jeuring |first1=Johan |last2=Meertens |first2=Lambert |author2-link=Lambert Meertens |last3=Guttmann |first3=Walter |date=2016-08-17 |website=Foswiki |access-date=2020-10-26 |archive-date=8 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308150549/https://ifipwg21wiki.cs.kuleuven.be/IFIP21/Profile |url-status=live }} which specified, maintains, and supports the languages ALGOL 60 and ALGOL 68.{{Cite web |url=https://ifipwg21wiki.cs.kuleuven.be/IFIP21/ScopeEtc |title=ScopeEtc: IFIP21: Foswiki |last1=Swierstra |first1=Doaitse |last2=Gibbons |first2=Jeremy |author2-link=Jeremy Gibbons |last3=Meertens |first3=Lambert |author3-link=Lambert Meertens |date=2011-03-02 |website=Foswiki |access-date=2020-10-26 |archive-date=2 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180902232853/https://ifipwg21wiki.cs.kuleuven.be/IFIP21/ScopeEtc |url-status=live }} He was involved in the design of ALGOL 68, and was WG 2.1 chairperson from 1978 to 1983.

He was associate director of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences from 1994 to 1997. Until his death, he was president of AdaCore, which he cofounded in 1994, and served as its CEO until 2012.{{cite web |title=Executive Team |publisher=AdaCore |url=http://www.adacore.com/home/company/exec_team/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522234304/http://www.adacore.com/home/company/exec_team/ |archive-date=2011-05-22 |access-date=2011-05-20}}{{cite magazine |author= |issue=Autumn Winter 2014–2015 |url=http://www.adacore.com/uploads/newsletter/GNAT_Pro_Insider_Autumn-Winter_2014-2015.pdf |title=Interview with Robert Dewar, AdaCore President and Cyrille Comar, AdaCore Managing Director |magazine=GNAT Pro insider |page=3 |publisher=AdaCore |access-date=26 October 2020 |archive-date=16 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116115243/https://www.adacore.com/uploads/newsletter/GNAT_Pro_Insider_Autumn-Winter_2014-2015.pdf |url-status=live }} Dewar was an outspoken advocate of freely licensed open-source software and an expert in copyright and patent law for software. He was in demand as a speaker at conferences and expert witness in legal actions.

While at the IIT, Dewar created the original SPITBOL compiler, with Ken Belcher in 1971, and Macro SPITBOL, with Tony McCann in 1974.{{cite book |last1=Emmer |first1=Mark B. |last2=Quillen |first2=Edward K. |year=2000 |orig-year=1989 |title=Macro SPITBOL |publisher=Catspaw |page=159 |url=http://spitbol.googlecode.com/files/spitbol-3.7-386.pdf |access-date=2011-05-20 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110827184125/http://spitbol.googlecode.com/files/spitbol-3.7-386.pdf |archive-date=2011-08-27}} These implementations of SNOBOL4, which quickly gained widespread popularity, are still being used today.{{cite book |editor-last=Wexelblat |editor-first=Richard L. |year=2014 |title=History of Programming Languages |publisher=Academic Press |pages=623–628 |isbn=978-1483266169}} In the 1980s, he was a principal author of the Realia COBOL compiler for the IBM PC, today marketed by Computer Associates, and still widely used in commercial environments.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}}

Dewar became involved with the language Ada from its early days as a Distinguished Reviewer of the Ada 1983 design proposed by Jean Ichbiah that was selected by the United States Department of Defense (US DoD). He was codirector, with Edmond Schonberg, of the team at NYU that produced Ada/Ed, an interpreter for Ada 83 written in SETL{{cite book |last1=Dewar |first1=Robert B. K. |last2=Fisher Jr. |first2=Gerald A. |last3=Schonberg |first3=Edmond |last4=Froelich |first4=Robert |last5=Bryant |first5=Stephen F. |last6=Goss |first6=Clinton |last7=Burke |first7=Michael |title=Proceeding of the ACM-SIGPLAN symposium on Ada programming language - SIGPLAN '80 |chapter=The NYU Ada translator and interpreter |date=November 1980 |volume=15 |issue=11 |pages=194–201 |isbn=0-89791-030-3 |doi=10.1145/948632.948659|s2cid=10586359 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.adahome.com/Resources/Compilers/Ada-Ed.html |title=Ada/Ed, an interpreter for Ada 83 |publisher=Ada Home |date=February 10, 1998 |access-date=December 19, 2011 |archive-date=9 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111209085941/http://www.adahome.com/Resources/Compilers/Ada-Ed.html |url-status=live }} and the first Ada implementation to pass the strenuous ACVC validation suite,{{cite web |url=http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA136759 |title=Ada Compiler Validation Summary Report: NYU Ada/Ed, Version 19.7 V-001 |publisher=SofTech, Inc. |place=Waltham, MA |date=April 11, 1983 |access-date=December 19, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120312080046/http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA136759 |archive-date=2012-03-12}} mandated for being allowed to use the trademarked name Ada.{{cite web |date=1987 |title=Ada Trademark Replaced by Certification Mark |url=http://archive.adaic.com/pol-hist/policy/trademrk.txt |publisher=Ada Information Clearinghouse |access-date=September 5, 2017 |archive-date=5 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505202745/http://archive.adaic.com/pol-hist/policy/trademrk.txt |url-status=live }}

Dewar and Schonberg went on to produce GNAT, a free software compiler for Ada that forms part of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC). Dewar also participated in the SETL project at NYU, and co-authored the handbook Programming With Sets: An Introduction to SETL. He influenced the design of the language ABC, in particular its SETL-style high-level data types, such as associative arrays. Guido van Rossum, the author of the language Python, wrote that the use of the colon in Python is due to Dewar's wife.{{cite web |last=van Rossum |first=Guido |author-link=Guido van Rossum |title=Karin Dewar, Indentation and the Colon |work=The History of Python |date=July 8, 2011 |url=http://python-history.blogspot.com/2011/07/karin-dewar-indentation-and-colon.html |access-date=2011-08-27 |archive-date=12 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110712093339/http://python-history.blogspot.com/2011/07/karin-dewar-indentation-and-colon.html |url-status=live }}

He was married to Karin Dewar, née Anderson (died 2013), and had two children, [https://www.benningtonbanner.com/local-news/jenny-dewar-hired-to-lead-better-bennington-corporation/article_a064b8fa-375e-11ec-808c-5bde066d1aaf.html Jenny] (born 1965) and Keith (born 1969), and two grandchildren. Dewar was known as an engaging and witty conversationalist.

Dewar played the bassoon, recorder, and other musical instruments and enjoyed singing. He was an enthusiastic and valued member and benefactor of the Village Light Opera Group (VLOG) for 35 years, serving them in many capacities, from producer and president to music director, and on stage from Harem Guard to the title role in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado.{{cite press release |title=The Mikado opens |publisher=Village Light Opera Group |year=2008 |url=http://www.villagelightopera.org/pastshows-27.php}}{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}} VLOG's Dewar Center for the Performing Arts was named in recognition of Robert and Karin Dewar's contributions.{{cite book |year=2008 |title=The Dewar Center Handbook |page=2 |publisher=Village Light Opera Group |url=http://www.villagelightopera.org/images/vlog-brochure-2008.pdf}}{{Dead link|date=November 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}} He was also a member of the North American Heckelphone Society and performed with other groups until only months before his death.

He died of cancer at age 70 at his home in Bennington, Vermont.{{cite web |author= |date=June 2015 |title=Sad news of Prof. Robert Dewar |url=http://cims.nyu.edu/webapps/content/news/RobertDewar |publisher=New York University |access-date=25 October 2020 |archive-date=2 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150702210804/http://cims.nyu.edu/webapps/content/news/RobertDewar |url-status=live }}

• {{cite journal |last=Dewar |first=Robert B. K. |date= June 1975 |title=Indirect Threaded Code |journal=Communications of the ACM |volume=18 |issue=6 |pages=330–331 |doi=10.1145/360825.360849|s2cid=26395264 |doi-access=free }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Dewar |first1=Robert B. K. |last2=McCann |first2=Anthony P. |year=1977 |title=Macro SPITBOL: a SNOBOL4 Compiler |journal=Software: Practice and Experience |volume=7 |pages=95–113 |doi=10.1002/spe.4380070106|s2cid=29014301 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Dewar |first1=Robert B. K. |last2=Golumbic |first2=Martin Charles |author2-link=Martin Charles Golumbic |last3=Goss |first3=Clinton F. |date=August 2013 |title=Macro SPITBOL |publisher=Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences |series=Computer Science Department Technical Report |volume=11 |orig-year=First published October 1979 |arxiv=1308.6096 |bibcode=2013arXiv1308.6096D}}
• {{cite book |title=MINIMAL: A Machine Independent Assembly Language |last1=Dewar |first1=Robert B. K. |last2=McCann |first2=Anthony P. |year=1979 |publisher=Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences |series=Computer Science Department Technical Report |volume=12}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Golumbic |first1=Martin Charles |author1-link=Martin Charles Golumbic |last2=Dewar |first2=Robert B. K. |last3=Goss |first3=Clinton F. |year=1980 |title=Macro Substitutions in Macro SPITBOL – a Combinatorial Analysis |journal=Proceedings of the 11th Southeastern Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory and Computing, Congressus Numerantium, Utilitas Math. |place=Winnipeg, Canada |volume=29 |pages=485–495}}
• {{cite book |last1=Schwartz |first1=J. T. |author1-link=Jacob T. Schwartz |last2=Dewar |first2=R. B. K. |last3=Dubinsky |first3=E. |last4=Schonberg |first4=E. |year=1986 |title=Programming with Sets: An Introduction to SETL |publisher=Springer-Verlag |isbn=0-387-96399-5}}
• {{cite book |last1=Dewar |first1=Robert B. K. |last2=Smosna |first2=Matthew |year=1990 |title=Microprocessors: A Programmer's View |publisher=McGraw-Hill |isbn=978-0-07-016638-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/microprocessorsp00robe}}
• {{cite journal |last=Dewar |first=Robert B. K. |year=2007 |title=The compiler as a static analysis tool |journal=SIGAda 2007 |pages=83–88}}

• Realia Spacemaker (1982)

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite magazine |author= |date=January 1983 |title=If you use DOS, you need this program |type=advertisement |magazine=PC Magazine |publisher=Ziff-Davis Publishing |volume=2 |number=9 |page=417 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vy3cBZkjbZgC&pg=RA3-PA417 |access-date=2019-04-22 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20190422174428/https://books.google.de/books?id=vy3cBZkjbZgC&pg=RA3-PA417&redir_esc=y%23v=onepage&q&f=false |archive-date=2019-04-22}}

{{cite book |title=Cambridge University Press et al v. Patton et al, Filing 124, Supplemental Initial Disclosures by Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Inc., Sage Publications, Inc. – Cambridge University Press, Oxfort University Press, Inc., and Sage Publications, Inc. v. Mark P. Becker, Georgia State University President, et al, Civil Action No. 1:08-CV-1425-ODE |publisher=United States District Court For The Northern District Of Georgia, Atlanta Division |chapter=Expert Report of Robert B. K. Dewar In Response To The Report Of Kenneth D. Crews |id=Exhibit A |type=Court document |page=18 |chapter-url=https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/georgia/gandce/1:2008cv01425/150651/124/1.html |access-date=2019-04-23 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180501180115/https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/georgia/gandce/1:2008cv01425/150651/124/1.html |archive-date=2018-05-01 |quote=[…] SPACEMAKER and TERMULATOR, commodity software for IBM PC (PC DOS file compression utility and VT-100 emulator), being marketed by Realia, Inc. R.B.K. Dewar (1982-1983), 8088 assembly language, 8,000 lines […]}}

{{cite web |last=Dewar |first=Robert Berriedale Keith |date=1984-03-13 |title=DOS 3.1 ASMB (Another Silly Microsoft Bug) |work=info-ibmpc@USC-ISIB.ARPA |url=https://people.dsv.su.se/~jpalme/qzkom/ibmpc-8605-000511.html |access-date=2019-04-23 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180501183936/https://people.dsv.su.se/~jpalme/qzkom/ibmpc-8605-000511.html |archive-date=2018-05-01 |quote=[…] I did write the Realia SpaceMaker program which does a similar sort of thing to […] EXEPACK […]}}

{{cite web |first=Michal |last=Necasek |date=2018-04-30 |title=Realia SpaceMaker |url=http://www.os2museum.com/wp/realia-spacemaker/ |website=OS/2 Museum |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190127131634/http://www.os2museum.com/wp/realia-spacemaker/ |archive-date=2019-01-27 |access-date=2019-02-22}}

{{cite web |last=Parsons |first=Jeff |date=2019-01-10 |title=An Update on Early Norton Utilities |work=PCjs |url=https://www.pcjs.org/blog/2019/01/10/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190129213010/https://www.pcjs.org/blog/2019/01/10/ |archive-date=2019-01-29 |access-date=2019-02-22}}

{{cite web |last=Necasek |first=Michal |date=2019-01-12 |title=Yep, Norton Did It |website=OS/2 Museum |url=http://www.os2museum.com/wp/yep-norton-did-it/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422073356/http://www.os2museum.com/wp/yep-norton-did-it/ |archive-date=2019-04-22 |access-date=2019-04-22}}

}}

• {{Official website|www.cs.nyu.edu/cs/faculty/dewar}}, New York University

{{New York University}}

{{ALGOL programming}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dewar, Robert Berriedale Keith}}

Category:1945 births

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