3 posts tagged with "Kenneth Iverson"

Coming back from this year’s Iverson College, I brought home quite a lot: a mountain of new knowledge, newly made friends, some unforgettable experiences, and the rather harsh reality of having to adjust to life without two private chefs again.

But among all of that was something far more valuable: a rarely seen piece of computing history.

The obituary of Kenneth E. Iverson, inventor of APL and one of the most influential figures in the history of array programming.

If you’ve been around the KDB/Q ecosystem for a while, chances are you’ve come across the legendary Iverson College. Founded by former KX Librarian Stephen Taylor in honour of Kenneth E. Iverson, the inventor of APL, the college has been running since 2011. After a brief hiatus between 2018 and 2023, it made a strong return in 2024. This year DefconQ joins forces with Stephen to reconvene the College at one of its favourite venues: Milden Hall.

One of the true highlights of last year was being invited to Iverson College 2024, an initiative led by Stephen Taylor, a long-standing advocate of APL and other array programming languages. Stephen is widely known in the KDB/Q community for his contributions, particularly his work on much of the documentation still available on code.kx.com. This post features a short video created by Miki Yamanouchi, a London based photographer and film maker, and captures key moments from the event. A heartfelt thank you to Stephen for being not just an ambassador for array programming, but a true cornerstone of our community.