Lee Daniel Crocker
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Lee Daniel Crocker (born July 3, 1963) is an American
computer programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...
. He is best known for rewriting the
software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
upon which
Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...
runs, to address
scalability Scalability is the property of a system to handle a growing amount of work by adding resources to the system. In an economic context, a scalable business model implies that a company can increase sales given increased resources. For example, a ...
problems. This software, originally known as "Phase III", went live in July 2002 and became the foundation of what is now called
MediaWiki MediaWiki is a free and open-source wiki software. It is used on Wikipedia and almost all other Wikimedia websites, including Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata; these sites define a large part of the requirement set for MediaWiki ...
. MediaWiki's code repository was still named "phase3" until the move from
Subversion Subversion () refers to a process by which the values and principles of a system in place are contradicted or reversed in an attempt to transform the established social order and its structures of power, authority, hierarchy, and social norms. Sub ...
to
Git Git () is a distributed version control system: tracking changes in any set of files, usually used for coordinating work among programmers collaboratively developing source code during software development. Its goals include speed, data in ...
in March 2012. He is a co-author of the PNG specification, and was also involved in the creation of the
GIF The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , see pronunciation) is a bitmap image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released on 15 June 1987. ...
and
JPEG JPEG ( ) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and imag ...
image file formats. He invented the per-scanline variable pre-filtering compression method used by PNG, the sum-of-abs heuristic used by many encoding programs, and proposed an early version of the
Adam7 algorithm Adam7 is an interlacing algorithm for raster images, best known as the interlacing scheme optionally used in PNG images. An Adam7 interlaced image is broken into seven subimages, which are defined by replicating this 8×8 pattern across the ...
, using 5 passes rather than 7. In 1998, he was one of the 23 original creators of the "
Transhumanist Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity and cognition. Transhuma ...
Declaration". As of 1999, he was a member of the
Extropians Extropianism, also referred to as the philosophy of extropy, is an "evolving framework of values and standards for continuously improving the human condition". Extropians believe that advances in science and technology will some day let people l ...
futurist society. In June 2010, Crocker and others won the USENIX Advanced Computing Technical Association STUG award for contributions to the Wikipedia software.


See also

*
List of Wikipedia people The list of Wikipedia people includes notable editors, founders and functionaries of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. __NOTOC__ By surname A * Evan Amos, a New York City-based professional photographer known for his numerous stock image ...


References


External links

*
''Information Week'' May 7, 2007: The Best Web Software Ever Written


* ttp://www.ddj.com/architect/184409587?pgno=4 Dr. Dobb's Journal #232 July 1995 (Vol 20, Issue 7), pp. 36–44: PNG: The Portable Network Graphic Format {{DEFAULTSORT:Crocker, Lee Daniel 1963 births Living people American transhumanists Extropians Free software programmers American software engineers American Wikimedians Wikipedia people