Anthony James Barr (born September 24, 1940), aka Tony Barr or Jim Barr, is an American

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...

designer,

software engineer Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development. A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term ''p ...

and

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

. Among his notable contributions are the Statistical Analysis System (SAS), automated lumber yield optimization, and the Automated Classification of Medical Entities (ACME).

Contributions

Statistical Analysis System (SAS)

Widely used internationally in

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industry Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery * The wider industrial sector ...

, and

academia An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

, the

SAS System SAS (previously "Statistical Analysis System") is a statistical software suite developed by SAS Institute for data management, advanced analytics, multivariate analysis, business intelligence, criminal investigation, and predictive analytics. ...

was founded by Barr in 1966. In September 1966, in

Athens, Georgia Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the sta ...

, he presented the conceptual ideas of SAS to members of the Committee on Statistical Software of the

University Statisticians of the Southern Experiment Stations The University Statisticians of the Southern Experiment Stations (USSES) was a coalition of southern Universities formed in the mid-1960s for the purpose of coordinating efforts in the development of statistical software. This coalition was largel ...

(USSES).Barr 2006b. Barr had earlier created an analysis-of-variance modeling language inspired by the notation of statistician Maurice Kendall. He developed it in

assembly language In computer programming, assembly language (or assembler language, or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as Assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence be ...

on the IBM 1410, as a graduate student at

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universit ...

from 1962 to 1963. Dr. A. Grandage, author of

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analysis-of-variance programs, advised on some of the statistical computations. This was followed by a multiple regression program with a flexible input format and with algebraic transformation of variables, in 1963 to 1964. Drawing on those programs, along with his experience with structured data files, he created SAS, placing statistical procedures into a formatted file framework. Barr's experience with structured data files was gained while working on the Formatted File System, (see

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). From 1966 to 1968, Barr developed the fundamental structure and language of SAS. In 1968, Barr began collaboration with others. Barr designed and implemented the programming language, data management, report writing, and systems areas of the evolving system. In 1976, SAS Institute, Inc. was incorporated by Anthony J. Barr, James H. Goodnight, John P. Sall, and Jane T. Helwig, with Barr holding the largest share (40%). He sold his shares in 1979.

Automated Classification of Medical Entities (ACME)

Barr created the

ACME Acme is Ancient Greek (ακμή; English transliteration: ''akmē'') for "the peak", "zenith" or "prime". It may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Acme'' (album), an album by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion * Acme and Septimius, a fictional ...

program for the

National Center for Health Statistics The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is a U.S. government agency that provides statistical information to guide actions and policies to improve the public health of the American people. It is a unit of the Centers for Disease Control ...

from 1967 to 1969. ACME is a computer program that assigns one underlying cause of death based on multiple causes of death listed on the death certificate.Barr 2006a. ACME in conjunction with other components comprise the

Mortality Medical Data System The Mortality Medical Data System (MMDS) is used to automate the entry, classification, and retrieval of cause-of-death information reported on death certificates throughout the United States and in many other countries. The National Center for H ...

(MMDS). This system is used to uniformly determine underlying cause of death for all death certificates in the United States. ACME has become the de facto international standard for the automated selection of the underlying cause of death. It and the other components of MMDS, or variations of them are used in many nations around the world. The system provides essential data used in calculating mortality statistics.

Automated Lumber Yield Optimization

In 1971 and 1972, Barr, along with partner Sandy Mullin designed, patented, and built the first computerized equipment to optimize the usage of lumber in the furniture industry. The device read marked flaws on a board, calculated the cross and rip cuts required for optimal board usage, and marked the cut lines on the board. In 1973, Barr-Mullin, Inc. was incorporated, and its lumber yield optimization technology remains widely used in the American wood industry.

Linking Loader for the IBM/360

In 1968, Barr created the first non- IBM linking loader for the

IBM/360 The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a family of mainframe computer systems that was announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. It was the first family of computers designed to cover both commercial and scientific applica ...

. Named LDR, the loader was sponsored by American Data Processing Inc. of

Raleigh Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeas ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. The Barr Loader cut typical program testing times by twenty-five percent. IBM did not offer the equivalent Loader for over eighteen months after the Barr Loader was commercially available.

IBM Workstation Simulators

In 1971, Barr created the first non-IBM HASP

terminal emulator A terminal emulator, or terminal application, is a computer program that emulates a video terminal within some other display architecture. Though typically synonymous with a shell or text terminal, the term ''terminal'' covers all remote termin ...

. Marketed by the University Computing Company (UCC), the HASP emulator gave a significant performance increase over the

IBM 2780 The IBM 2780 and the IBM 3780 are devices developed by IBM to perform remote job entry (RJE) and other batch functions over telephone lines; they communicate with the mainframe via Binary Synchronous Communications (BSC or Bisync) and replaced o ...

emulator he had developed for UCC in 1969. The emulators were developed on the

PDP-8 The PDP-8 is a 12-bit computing, 12-bit minicomputer that was produced by Digital Equipment Corporation, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It was the first commercially successful minicomputer, with over 50,000 units being sold over the model's ...

minicomputer and allowed COPE terminals to communicate with the IBM/360 and

IBM/370 The IBM System/370 (S/370) is a model range of IBM mainframe computers announced on June 30, 1970, as the successors to the System/360 family. The series mostly maintains backward compatibility with the S/360, allowing an easy migration path f ...

. In 1971, Barr also implemented the HASP workstation for M & M Computer Industries,

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. Implemented on the

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minicomputer, the program became the

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Remote Batch Terminal. Both Singer and UCC sold their terminal divisions to

Harris Corporation Harris Corporation was an American technology company, defense contractor, and information technology services provider that produced wireless equipment, tactical radios, electronic systems, night vision equipment and both terrestrial and spaceb ...

, which continued to market the products. In 1983, Barr developed hardware and software for performing HASP remote job entry communication on the IBM PC. His company, Barr Systems, Inc., marketed and sold Barr HASP, and went on to implement and support

Bisync Binary Synchronous Communication (BSC or Bisync) is an IBM character-oriented, half-duplex link protocol, announced in 1967 after the introduction of System/360. It replaced the synchronous transmit-receive (STR) protocol used with second gener ...

and SNA SDLC

workstation A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. The term ''workstat ...

s and gateways, along with other

data communications Data transmission and data reception or, more broadly, data communication or digital communications is the transfer and reception of data in the form of a digital bitstream or a digitized analog signal transmitted over a point-to-point or ...

and output management products.

Formatted File System (FFS)

Barr was employed with IBM Federal Systems Division at

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from 1964 to 1966. There he worked on the NIPS Formatted File System. FFS, a generalized data base management system for retrieval and report writing, was one of the first data management systems to take advantage of defined file structure for data storage and retrieval efficiency. Assigned to work with the National Military Command Center, the

information processing Information processing is the change (processing) of information in any manner detectable by an observer. As such, it is a process that ''describes'' everything that happens (changes) in the universe, from the falling of a rock (a change in posit ...

branch of the

Joint Chiefs of Staff The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, that advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and the ...

, Barr rewrote and enhanced FFS, implementing three of its five major components: retrieval, sorting, and file update. His work featured the innovation of a uniform lexical analyzer for all languages in the system with a uniform method of handling all error messages. Working with FFS introduced Barr to the potential of the defined file structure, which was to become a central concept of SAS ( above).

Patents, publications, and education

Patents

* Barr, Tony, Satisfaction Metrics and Methods of Implementation
8,380,560
2-19-2013, Cl. 705-7.38. * Barr, Anthony J. and Mullin, Alexander G., Apparatus and method for maximizing utilization of elongated stock
4,017,976
4-19-1977, Cl. 235-151.l. * Barr, Anthony J. and Mullin, Alexander G., Apparatus for optimizing the yield of usable pieces from boards and the like
3,942,021
3-2-76, Cl. 250-572.000. * Barr, Anthony J. and Mullin, Alexander G., Apparatus and method for optimizing the yield of usable pieces from boards and the like
3,931,501
1-6-76, Cl. 235-151.100.

Publications

* * * * *

Personal life and career

Barr was born in New York City and grew up in

Summit, New Jersey Summit is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The city is located on a ridge in northern- central New Jersey, within the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions in the New York metropolitan area. At the 2010 United Sta ...

, where he graduated from Summit High School in 1958. Growing up, he was inspired by the biographies of Ben Franklin, Marconi, Alexander Graham Bell, Wright Brothers, and Sikorsky as well as visits to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and the Museum of Natural History in New York City. In 2021, Barr and his wife Olga donated $1M to the

Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention The Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention is a museum in Gainesville, Florida that has a mission “to transform communities by inspiring and equipping future inventors, entrepreneurs, and visionaries.” The museum is named after Dr. Rober ...

to support the museum’s youth programming.Mallard, Aida
"Tony and Olga Barr donated $1M to Cade Museum for youth programming."
''

The Gainesville Sun ''The Gainesville Sun'' () is a newspaper published daily in Gainesville, Florida, United States, covering the North-Central portion of the state. The paper is published by Lynni Henderson, the paper's Executive Editor is Douglas Ray and the edi ...

'', February 1, 2021. Accessed February 6, 2021.

Education

* BS in Applied Physics (with honors), North Carolina State University, 1962. * MS in Physics, North Carolina State University, 1968. ** 1963

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

Fellowship to study physical oceanography at

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it i ...

. ** 1963 National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship at North Carolina State University. ** 199
Distinguished Alumnus
North Carolina State University
College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences

Notes

References

* * Barr, Anthony J. (2006)
Professional History
* Barr, Anthony J. (2006)

* Barr, Anthony J. (2010)

* * * * * * *

br>About the Mortality Medical Data System
* North Carolina State University
College of Physical and Mathematical SciencesDistinguished Alumni
* * * * *