Tom Duff

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.
Tom Duff 2006

Thomas Douglas Selkirk Duff (born December 8, 1952 in Toronto , Ontario ) is a Canadian programmer . He grew up in Toronto and Leaside, Ontario. In 1974 he graduated in mathematics at the University of Waterloo and two years later he took another degree in mathematics at the University of Toronto .

Career

Tom Duff worked at the New York Institute of Technology Computer Graphics Lab and the Mark Williams Company in Chicago , later in the Lucasfilm Computer Research and Development Division. While at Bell Labs Computing Science Research Center, he developed the " rc " shell for the (Unix-like) Plan 9 operating system. Duff has been with Pixar Animation Studios since 1996 . The Porter-Duff Composition , a process for digital image overlay, is named after him and Thomas Porter .

honors and awards

  • In 1995 he (together with others) received the Academy Scientific and Engineering Award for his work on " digital image compositing ". Together with Bill Reeves he created the first version of Pixar's “Marionette” 3-D animation system, which in 1997 won the same award again.
  • While working at Lucasfilm , he invented the Duff's Device , a mechanism for optimizing the runtime of a certain type of loop in the C programming language .
  • On August 22, 2006, a method developed by Tom Duff and Robert L. Cook at Pixar called " Shot shading method and apparatus " was patented in the USA.
  • On October 31, 2006, a method also developed by Tom Duff and Robert L. Cook at Pixar called " Shot rendering method and apparatus " was patented in the USA.

Quote

"Shared libraries are the work of the devil, the one true sign that the apocalypse is at hand."

" Dynamic libraries are the work of the devil , the only sure sign that the apocalypse is approaching"

- Tom Duff : SO for Plan9?

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rc - The Plan 9 Shell. Retrieved September 2, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Papers by Tom Duff. Retrieved September 2, 2019 .
  3. ^ Pixar Research Group. Retrieved September 2, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Duff, Tom
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Duff, Thomas Douglas Selkirk
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian programmer
DATE OF BIRTH December 8, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Toronto , Ontario