Tony Brooker

{{Short description|British computer scientist (1925–2019)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}

{{Use British English|date=December 2012}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Tony Brooker

| birth_name =Ralph Anthony Brooker

| birth_date = {{birth date|1925|09|22|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Fulham, London, England

| death_date = {{death date and age|2019|11|20|1925|09|22|df=yes}}

| death_place=Hexham, England

| nationality = British

| fields = Computer science

| workplaces = University of Cambridge
Manchester University
Essex University

| alma_mater = Imperial College London

| known_for = Mark 1 Autocode
The compiler-compiler

}}

Ralph Anthony Brooker (22 September 1925 – 20 November 2019), was a British computer scientist known for developing the Mark 1 Autocode.{{cite book | page = [https://archive.org/details/milestonesincomp0000reil/page/311 311] | title = Milestones in Computer Science and Information Technology | first = Edwin D. | last = Reilly | publisher = Greenwood Publishing Group | year = 2003 | isbn = 1573565210 | url = https://archive.org/details/milestonesincomp0000reil/page/311 }}

He was educated at Emanuel School and graduated in Mathematics from Imperial College in 1945 and returned there in 1947 as assistant lecturer. His first computer project was the construction of a fast multiplier unit from electro-mechanical relays. This was taken over by Sid Michaelson{{Cite web|url=http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~greg/icce|title = Imperial College Computing Engines}} and K. D. Tocher and incorporated into ICCE, the Imperial College Computing Engine based on the same technology.{{Cite journal | last1 = Hollocks | first1 = B. W. | title = Intelligence, innovation and integrity— KD Tocher and the dawn of simulation | doi = 10.1057/jos.2008.15 | journal = Journal of Simulation | volume = 2 | issue = 3 | pages = 128–137 | year = 2008 | s2cid = 56974328 | doi-access = free }} By then (1949)Brooker had moved to the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory to work for Maurice Wilkes on software development for EDSAC.

In October 1951 Brooker joined the Computing Machine Laboratory at Manchester University, where he took over from Alan Turing the task of writing programming manuals and running a user service on the Ferranti Mark 1 computer. It was his experience with the rather tedious Manchester machine-coding conventions that led him to devise what was probably the world's first publicly available High-Level Language. This was the Mark 1 Autocode available from March 1954 and therefore about two years ahead of the first Fortran compiler.

Throughout the 1950s Brooker led a group at Manchester working on the theoretical underpinnings of compilers. This culminated in the compiler-compiler, a seminal idea first presented at a British Computer Society Conference in July 1960 by Brooker and Derrick Morris.{{cite book |last1=Lee |first1=John A. N. |title=International Biographical Dictionary of Computer Pioneers |date=1995 |publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn |location=Chicago |isbn=1-884964-47-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/internationalbio00john/page/138 138] |url=https://archive.org/details/internationalbio00john|url-access=registration |quote=morris computing manchest compiler -tim. }} This was subsequently implemented on the Ferranti ATLAS and used for high-level language development. The ATLAS was regarded as the world's most powerful computer when it was brought into service in December 1962.

In the mid-1960s Brooker helped to inaugurate the UK's first Computer Science degree course at Manchester. He moved to Essex University in 1967 to take up the university's founding Chair of Computer Science. The first Essex Computer Science graduates obtained their degrees in the summer of 1970. He retired in 1988{{cite web | url = http://www.essex.ac.uk/csee/people/emeritus/brooker.aspx | title = Staff in the Department: Emeritus Professors Professor TONY BROOKER | publisher = University of Essex School of Computer Science | date = 7 August 2008 | accessdate = 11 September 2012}} and died on 20 November 2019 in Hexham.{{cite web | url = https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/dec/05/tony-brooker-obituary | title = Tony Brooker obituary | work = The Guardian | date = 5 December 2019 | accessdate = 5 December 2019}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/technology/tony-brooker-dead.html|title = Tony Brooker, Pioneer of Computer Programming, Dies at 94|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 13 December 2019|last1 = Metz|first1 = Cade}}