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{{Short description|American computer scientist}}{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2022}}

factoids

Flushing, Queens, New York (state)>New York, United States| death_date = | death_place = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | home_town = | other_names = | pronounce = | citizenship = United States| fields = Computer scienceNaval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division>U.S. Naval Weapons LaboratoryStanford UniversityUniversity of GeorgiaCornell University| patrons = | education =

• Queens College, City University of New York (BS)
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (MS)
• Technical University of Munich (Dr)

}}| thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | doctoral_advisors = Friedrich L. BauerJosef Stoer| academic_advisors = Susan L. Graham>Susan Graham (1971)Susan Owicki (1975)Jennifer Widom (1989)T. V. Raman (1994)Michael E. Caspersen (2007)DAVID GRIES >URL=HTTPS://MATHGENEALOGY.ORG/ID.PHP?ID=22781 PUBLISHER=MATHEMATICS GENEALOGY PROJECT, August 7, 2022, Compiler>Compiler construction (1971)GRIES >FIRST=D. TITLE=COMPILER CONSTRUCTION FOR DIGITAL COMPUTERS LOCATION=NEW YORK QUOTE=THE FIRST TEXT ON COMPILER WRITING., Interference freedomContributions to programming methodology, algorithms, CS education| influences = | influenced =

• AFIPS Education Award (1986)
• ACM SIGCSE Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computer Science Education (1991)
• IEEE Computer Society Taylor L. Booth Education Award (1994)WEB

• ACM Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award (1995)WEB

}}| spouse = | children = | signature = | signature_alt = www.cs.cornell.edu/gries/|cs.cornell.edu/gries}}| footnotes = }}David Gries (born April 26, 1939) is an American computer scientist at Cornell University, mainly known for his books The Science of Programming (1981) and A Logical Approach to Discrete Math (1993, with Fred B. Schneider).He was associate dean for undergraduate programs at the Cornell University College of Engineering from 2003–2011. His research interests include programming methodology and related areas such as programming languages, related semantics, and logic. His son, Paul Gries, has been a co-author of an introductory textbook to computer programming using the language Python and is a teaching stream professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto.

Life

Gries earned a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) from Queens College in 1960. He spent the next two years working as a programmer-mathematician for the United States Naval Weapons Laboratory, where he met his wife, Elaine.He earned a Master of Science (M.S.) in mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1963. While at Illinois, Gries worked with (:de:Manfred Paul (Informatiker)|Manfred Paul) and Ruediger Wiehle to write a full compiler for the language ALGOL 60 for the IBM 7090 mainframe computer. He earned his Dr. rer. nat. in 1966 from the TH München, studying under Friedrich L. Bauer and Josef Stoer.Gries is member emeritus of IFIP Working Group 2.3,WEB, IFIP Working Group 2.3 on Programming Methodology,ifip-tc2-wg23.paluno.uni-due.de/, July 15, 2022, June 30, 2022,web.archive.org/web/20220630092827/https://ifip-tc2-wg23.paluno.uni-due.de/, dead, whose aim is to increase programmers’ ability to compose programs, and he editedProgramming Methodology: a Collection of Articles by Members of IFIP WG2.3,BOOK, Gries, D., 1979, Programming Methodology: a Collection of Articles by Members of IFIP WG2.3, Monographs in Computer Science, Springer Verlag,link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4612-6315-9doi=10.1007/978-1-4612-6315-9, 978-1-4612-6317-3, 29484154, which highlights the work of this group in its first ten years.Gries was an assistant professor at Stanford University from 1966–1969 and then became an associate professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He spent the next 30 years there, including time as chair of the computer science department from 1982–1987. Gries had a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1984–1985. He spent 1999–2002 at the University of Georgia in Athens and returned to Cornell in January 2003.Gries was an advocate of treating formal methods in programming as a core computer science topic and teaching it to undergraduates, a stance that found large amounts of debate within the computer science education community. Around 700 students and fellow faculty members were in attendance for his final lecture, given to his “Programming and Data Structures” class, in May 2022.NEWS,www.cs.cornell.edu/information/news/newsitem12269/david-gries-receives-2022-tau-beta-pi-professor-year-award-and, David Gries Receives 2022 Tau Beta Pi Professor of the Year Award and Delivers Final Lecture at Cornell, Louis, DiPietro, David, LaRocca, Cornell Bowers CIS, May 25, 2022, He is author, co-author, or editor of seven textbooks and 75 research papers. His papers are archived at Cornell.WEB,catalog.library.cornell.edu/catalog/15707084, David Gries papers, #16-13-4524. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library., 12 October 2023, {{As of|2021}}, he lives in Ithaca, New York.

Textbooks

Gries’ 1971 work Compiler Construction for Digital Computers was the first textbook to be published on designing and implementing language compilers. It was also one of the first textbooks to be written and produced using computers, in this case punched cards input to a text-formatting program that ran on an IBM System/360 Model 65; the early technology used eventually resulted in the book having a somewhat dated appearance. Compiler Construction for Digital Computers sold well and went through more than twenty printings,WEB,infolab.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/pictures/display/floor5.htm, David Gries’ Compiler book Source, Computer History Exhibits, Stanford University, October 4, 2022, although over time it would be eclipsed in renown by “the Dragon Book”, Alfred V. Aho and Jeffrey D. Ullman’s 1977 volume Principles of Compiler Design.PRESS RELEASE,www.acm.org/media-center/2021/march/turing-award-2020, ACM Turing Award Honors Innovators Who Shaped the Foundations of Programming Language Compilers and Algorithms, Association for Computing Machinery, March 31, 2021, Nonetheless, Dutch computer scientist Dick Grune has written of Compiler Construction for Digital Computers that “entire generations of compiler constructors have grown up with it and they have not regretted it.“WEB,dickgrune.com/CS/Summaries/CompilerConstruction-1979.html, Compiler Construction before 1980, Dick, Grune, dickgrune.com, May 20, 2010, The textbook An Introduction to Programming: A Structured Approach Using PL/I and PL/C was co-written with his computer scientist college Richard W. Conway and published in 1973. It used the PL/C dialect developed at Cornell and went through several editions and adaptations. It stressed the discipline of structured programming throughout, becoming one of the most prominent textbooks to do so,NEWS,www.newspapers.com/clip/110544982/the-ithaca-journal/, Computer Text Is Updated, The Ithaca Journal, June 30, 1975, 6, Newspapers.com, and introduced considerations of program correctness, becoming the first introductory textbook to do so.In 1981, Gries published The Science of Programming, a textbook that covers program verification. It presents propositional calculus and uses it to formalize the treatment of preconditions, postconditions, invariants, and related entities,CONFERENCE, Peter, Henderson, 1987, Modern introductory computer science, Proceedings of the eighteenth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education (SIGCSE ‘87), Association for Computing Machinery, 183–190, 10.1145/31820.31756, free, and then provides practical stratagems for program development via identifying those logical entities from a problem specification. A review in SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes found the book to be valuable in the logic and stratagem aspects, but too focused on low-level programming with no abstract data types discussed other than the simple array.JOURNAL, Susan L., Gerhart, Two recent books on programming, SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, 7, 2, April 1982, 63–64, 10.1145/1005937.1005948, 40374643, Writing in Communications of the ACM, computer scientist Jon Bentley said The Science of Programming was “an excellent introduction to thefield” and said that professional programmers could benefit from studying it and using program verification techniques in their own projects.JOURNAL, Jon, Bentley, Programming pearls: Writing correct programs, Communications of the ACM, 26, 12, December 1983, 1040–1045, 10.1145/358476.358484, 6134319, free, A Logical Approach to Discrete Math was co-authored with Fred B. Schneider and published in 1993. A paper from a faculty member at Southwestern University advocating teaching the subjects the book covered to first-year undergraduates and called it “an ideal text covering predicate calculus for use in programming.“CONFERENCE, Richard, Denman, David A., Naumann, Walter, Potter, Gary, Richter, 1994, Derivation of programs for freshmen, Proceedings of the twenty-fifth SIGCSE symposium on Computer science education (SIGCSE ‘94), Association for Computing Machinery, 116–120, 10.1145/191029.191077, free, Similarly, a faculty member at Pepperdine University stated that, “My experience with A Logical Approach to Discrete Math convinced me that formal methods are easily mastered at the undergraduate level.“JOURNAL, J. Stanley, Warford, An experience teaching formal methods in discrete mathematics, SIGCSE Bulletin, 27, 3, September 1995, 60–64, 10.1145/209849.209860, 14599744, free,

Selected works

• BOOK, Gries, D., 1971, Compiler Construction for Digital Computers, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 0-471-32776-X, English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Russian, The first text on compiler writing.,
• BOOK, Gries, D., Conway, R., 1973, An Introduction to Programming: a structured approach, Edition 1, Winthrop, Cambridge,
• JOURNAL, Owicki, S., Gries, D., Verifying properties of parallel programs: an axiomatic approach, 10.1145/360051.360224, Communications of the ACM, 19, 5, 279–285, 1976, 9099351, free

,

• JOURNAL

• Gries, D., ed. (1979) Programming Methodology: a Collection of Articles by Members of IFIP WG2.3
• BOOK, Gries, D., 1981, The Science of Programming, Monographs in Computer Science, Springer Verlag,link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4612-5983-1, New York, 10.1007/978-1-4612-5983-1, 978-0-387-96480-5, 37034126, English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Russian,
• BOOK, Gries, D., Feijen, W.H.J., van Gasteren, A.J.M., Misra, J., 1990, Beauty is our Business, Monographs in Computer Science, Springer Verlag,link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4612-4476-9

doi=10.1007/978-1-4612-4476-9, 978-1-4612-8792-6, 24379938,

• BOOK, Gries, D., Schneider, F. B., 1993, A Logical Approach to Discrete Math, Monographs in Computer Science, Springer Verlag,link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4757-3837-7

doi=10.1007/978-1-4757-3837-7 s2cid=206657798,

• BOOK, Gries, D., De Roever, W. P., 1998

series=IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, Springer,link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-0-387-35358-6doi=10.1007/978-0-387-35358-6 s2cid=30793173, Programming Concepts and Methods PROCOMET ‘98,

• BOOK, Gries, D., Gries, P., 2004

publisher=Springer Verlag, Came with a CD called ‘Program Live’ with videos.,link.springer.com/book/10.1007/b138328doi=10.1007/b138328, 0-387-22681-8,

• BOOK, Gries, D., 2022, JavaHyperText and Data Structures, Free online text with over 50 videos.,www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/JavaAndDS/definitions.html, Ithaca, New York,

Awards

• Lifetime Achievement Award for Teaching from Cornell Bowers CIS – inaugural recipientWEB

,cis.cornell.edu/inaugural-excellence-awards, Lifetime Achievement Award for TeachingCornell University>Cornell, 2022-07-10, (2022)

• Tau Beta Pi Professor of the YearWEB

,www.engineering.cornell.edu/alumni/ceaa-alumni-association/ceaa-awards/tau-beta-pi-professor-year-awards, Tau Beta Pi Professor of the YearCornell University>Cornell, 2022-07-10, (2022)

• Oldest paper in the ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium Top Ten Papers of All TimeWEB

,sigcse.org/programs/awards/SIGCSE-top-10-all-time.html, ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium Top Ten Papers of All Time Award, SIGCSE202210, }}JOURNAL

• Amity Booker Prize, with Paul Gries (2016)WEB

,www.cs.cornell.edu/information/awards-by-recipient, Awards, Cornell Bowers CIS - Computer Science, 2022-09-08,

• Honorary Doctor of Science, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio (1999){{refn|The Cornell CS Department TimelineWEB

,www.cs.cornell.edu/information/timeline, Cornell Department of Computer Science -50 Years of Innovation, Cornell Dept of Computer Science, 2022-09-02, announces this doctorate}}

• Honorary Doctor of Laws, Daniel Webster College, Nashua, New Hampshire (1996){{refn|The Cornell CS Department Timeline announces this doctorate}}
• WEB

,awards.acm.org/karlstrom, ACM Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award, (1995)

• Weiss Presidential FellowWEB

,theuniversityfaculty.cornell.edu/dean/awards/the-stephen-h-weiss-awards/stephen-h-weiss-fellow-award-winners-by-year/, Weiss Presidential Fellow (for contributions to undergraduate education)Cornell University>Cornell, 2022-07-10, –among the first ten Fellows (1995)

• Advisor of T.V. Raman, whose Ph.D. thesisWEB

,www.cs.cornell.edu/info/people/raman/phd-thesis/aster-thesis.pdf, Audio System for Technical Readings, PhD thesis, 2022-07-09, won the annual WEB,awards.acm.org/doctoral-dissertation, ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award, (1995)

• IEEE-CS WEB

,www.computer.org/volunteering/awards/boothdate=April 3, 2018, (1994)

• Charter Fellow, ACMWEB

,awards.acm.org/fellows, ACM FellowsAssociation for Computing Machinery>ACM, 1994, 2022-07-09, WEB,awards.acm.org/award_winners/gries_1028422, David Gries: ACM FellowAssociation for Computing Machinery>ACM, 1994, 2022-07-09, (1994)

• CRA Distinguished Service Award WEB

,cra.org/about/awards/distinguished-service-award/, Distinguished Service Awardpublisher=[hide]Computing Research Association, {{Format date>202210, }} (1991)

• Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science|AAAS[edih]WEB

,www.aaas.org/fellows/historic, Historic Fellows, AAASAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science>AAAS, 2022-07-10, (1990)

• ACM SIGCSE Award for Outstanding Contribution to CS Education (1991)
• AFIPS Education Award (1986)
• Guggenheim FellowshipWEB

,www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/david-gries/, David Gries - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, 1983, 2022-07-10, (1983)

• ACM Programming Systems and Languages Paper Award, with Susan Owicki,WEB

,awards.acm.org/programming-systems-and-languages-paper, ACM Programming Systems and Languages Paper AwardAssociation for Computing Machinery>ACM, 1977, 2022-07-07, for the “Verifying properties of parallel programs: an axiomatic approach” paper (1977)

• Superior Accomplishment Award, U.S. Naval Weapons Lab, Dahlgren, Va. (1961)

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

• {{Official website|www.cs.cornell.edu/gries}}
• Cornell University Science News: Computer association names Cornell’s Gries an outstanding educator
• {{MathGenealogy|22781}}
• Books by David Gries (listed on Amazon)
• “A Conversation with David Gries”, interview by Robert L. Constable, 2015

{{ALGOL programming}}{{Authority control}}