Very sad. https://xkcd.com/2293/
On Fri, 17 Apr 2020, 06:54 Greg Keogh, <[email protected]> wrote: > Folks, I was sad to learn overnight that the mathematician John Horton > Conway <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Horton_Conway> died last week > of a COVID-19 infection. Conway was one of those off-beat polymaths who > worked across many disciplines. In Knuth's epic series TAOP > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Computer_Programming> the name > J H Conway pops-up all over the place in references, often when discussing > the complexity of classic programming algorithms. > > I mainly associate him with the invention of The Game of Life > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life> in the early 70s. > One of the first serious programs I wrote was a Life simulator in COBOL on > a mainframe which printed the results on 15x11" fan-fold paper (I still > have some sample pages). There are free PC programs available that play the > game at blazing speed at arbitrary resolution on any window size, and it's > quite hypnotic to watch. The game soaked up so much precious CPU time back > then that some wits suggested it was a Russian plot to impede the progress > of Western computer technology. > > Cheers, > *Greg Keogh* >
