Interview with Susan Lammers
Butler
Lampson
Citation: In Programmers at Work, Microsoft Press, 1986, pp
24-39.
Email: blampson@microsoft.com. This paper is at http://www.research.microsoft.com.
Abstract:
Currently a senior engineer at
the Systems Research Center of Digital Equipment Corporation in Palo Alto,
California, Butler Lampson was an associate professor of computer science at
the University of California, Berkeley, a founder of the Berkeley Computer
Corporation, and a senior research fellow at Xerox PARC's Computer Science
Laboratory.
Lampson's many accomplishments
in so many areas of computer design and research make him one of the most
highly regarded professionals in the field. He has worked on hardware systems,
such as the Ethernet local network and Alto and the Dorado personal computers;
operating systems, such as the SDS 940 and Alto; programming languages, such as
LISP and Mesa; application programs, such as the Bravo editor and the Star office
system; and network servers, such as the Dover printer and the Grapevine mail
system.
I met Butler Lampson in Palo
Alto at the offices of Digital Equipment Corporation where he works one week
out of a six-week cycle; the other five weeks he works in Philadelphia. He is
what he calls a "tele-commuter," doing much of his work via
telecommunication lines.
Unlike so many others in this
fast-paced, quickly growing industry, Butler Lampson doesn't exhibit many
entrepreneurial interests. His focus is singular: He is concerned with the
successful design of a computer system, whether it be hardware, software
applications, languages, or networks. Lampson writes very little source code
today, he is a system designer, the person with the vision and expertise who lays
the groundwork for a complex system. And he is undoubtedly one of the best.