John Ousterhout
John Kenneth Ousterhout | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 15, 1954 United States |
| Occupation(s) | Computer scientist, academic |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Known for | Developing Tcl scripting language, Tk toolkit, coscheduling, Sprite operating system, log-structured file system, Magic VLSI CAD software |
John Kenneth Ousterhout (born October 15, 1954) is an American computer scientist and a faculty member at Stanford University. He is a co-founder of Electric Cloud alongside John Graham-Cumming.
Before his tenure at Stanford, he was a professor at University of California, Berkeley. Ousterhout is recognized for developing the Tcl scripting language and the Tk toolkit designed for cross-platform widgets. He also pioneered the idea of coscheduling. His leadership extended to the creation of the experimental Sprite operating system and the initial log-structured file system. Furthermore, he directed the development team responsible for the Magic VLSI computer-aided design (CAD) software.
Education and career
Ousterhout obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Yale University in 1975, followed by a Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1980.
In recognition of his contributions to electronic design automation CAD systems for very-large-scale integrated circuits, he was awarded the Grace Murray Hopper Award in 1987. The Association for Computing Machinery honored him as a Fellow in 1994 for these achievements. His election to the National Academy of Engineering came in 2001, acknowledging his advancements in programming abstraction.
Joining Sun Microsystems Laboratories in 1994, Ousterhout led a specialized team focused on Tcl's development. In January 1998, he co-established Scriptics, Inc., later renamed Ajuba Solutions, which specialized in professional tools for Tcl development; most members of the Tcl team transitioned with him. Ajuba was acquired by Interwoven in October 2000. He became part of Stanford University's academic staff in 2008.
Selected works
- THE DESIGN OF XPRS, VLDB conference, 1988 (co-authored with Michael Stonebraker, Randy Katz, David Patterson)
- A Philosophy of Software Design, Yaknyam Press, 2018 (ISBN 1732102201)