[Jscheme-devel] Sad News about Ken Anderson

[Timothy J H. <tjh...@br...>]

Dear JScheme  community,

I'm sorry to bring you the very sad news that Ken Anderson,
one of the co-developers of JScheme, died last night at the Spam 
conference
in Cambridge.  He was in great spirits, talking about JScheme, when
he collapsed mid-sentence.

Ken was one of the three main developers of JScheme.
JScheme had two parent languages -- Peter Norvig's SILK
and Tim Hickey's Jscheme applet.  Ken came onto the project
in the beginning (1997) and built the Scheme-Java interface that became
the javadot notation. He was responsible for the beautifully designed
cache techniques that make javadot so efficient. He also
was a tireless developer, chasing down bugs, dreaming up and
seriously analyzing proposed new optimizations. He was a
talented software engineer who loved building an elegant
and simultaneously practical language. He was also a really
nice guy. Kind, generous, thoughtful.  The world is a poorer
place for his passing.

Ken touched many lives and brought many communities together.
I worked with him on JScheme for 2-3 years (publishing two papers)
before I met him in person (or even knew what he looked like!)
We've met regularly since to plot the future of JScheme and to
share our war stories of JScheme in the world.  He has played
a major role in the Lightweight Language conferences and was
also an active player in the anti-Spam effort. I will miss him,
as I'm sure many other will as well.

JScheme will remain an active project and is very much part
of what Ken has given to the world. I am honored to have been
his friend and codeveloper.

Sincerely,
---Tim Hickey---