Randal L. Schwartz (born November 22, 1961), also known as merlyn, is an American author, system administrator and programming consultant. He has written several books on the

Perl Perl is a family of two high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming languages. "Perl" refers to Perl 5, but from 2000 to 2019 it also referred to its redesigned "sister language", Perl 6, before the latter's name was offi ...

programming language, and plays a promotional role within the Perl community. He is a co-host of

FLOSS Weekly FLOSS Weekly is a free and open-source software (FLOSS) themed netcast from the TWiT Network. The show premiered on April 7, 2006, and features interviews with prominent guests from the free software/open source community. It was originally hosted ...

. In 1995, while working as a consultant for

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

, he cracked a number of passwords on the company's systems. He was convicted of hacking, sentenced to five years probation, and fined. The conviction was expunged in 2007.

Career

Schwartz is the co-author of several widely used books about

, a programming language, and has written regular columns about Perl for several computer magazines, including

UNIX Review ''UNIX Review'' was an American magazine covering technical aspects of the UNIX operating system and C programming. Recognized for its in-depth technical analysis, the journal also reported on industry confabs and included some lighter fare. Hist ...

, Web Techniques, and the Perl Journal. He popularized the

Just another Perl hacker Just another Perl hacker, or JAPH, typically refers to a Perl program that prints "Just another Perl hacker," (the comma is canonical but is occasionally omitted). Short JAPH programs are often used as signatures in online forums, or as T-shirt ...

signature programs. He is a founding board member of the Perl Mongers, the worldwide Perl grassroots advocacy organization. He was a member of the Squeak Oversight Board, which oversees the

Squeak Squeak is an object-oriented, class-based, and reflective programming language. It was derived from Smalltalk-80 by a group that included some of Smalltalk-80's original developers, initially at Apple Computer, then at Walt Disney Imagineering ...

programming language. He has owned and operated Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. since 1985. After joining as co-host of

, a

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

(

FLOSS Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...

) themed

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

in 2007, he assumed the role of host in 2010 until May 2020. He has done voice work for StarShipSofa, a science-fiction podcast. Schwartz's name is also associated with the '' Schwartzian transform'', an

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...

to efficiently sort a list according to a computation, without repeating the computation many times for each element of the list. He also coined the name spaceship operator for use in his teaching, because it reminded him of the spaceship in an HP BASIC

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vario ...

game. Schwartz is a member of the F/OSS community, and has been named a "Perl Expert" and interviewed by numerous outlets – to discuss his views on Perl, Ruby, Smalltalk and other topics – including Dr. Dobb's, Paul dot Com Security TV, The Command Line, PerlCast,

, ONLamp.com, and InfoQ. Schwartz was also a speaker at the 2011 OSCON conference and a keynote speaker at the 2010 Texas LinuxFest conference. His various books have been met with positive reviews. Randal Schwartz - FISL 16

Intel case

In July 1995, Schwartz was prosecuted in the case of ''State of Oregon vs. Randal Schwartz'', which dealt with compromised computer security during his time as a system administrator for

. In the process of performing

penetration testing A penetration test, colloquially known as a pen test or ethical hacking, is an authorized simulated cyberattack on a computer system, performed to evaluate the security of the system; this is not to be confused with a vulnerability assessment. T ...

, he cracked a number of passwords on Intel's systems. Schwartz was originally convicted on three felony counts, with one reduced to a misdemeanor, but on February 1, 2007, his arrest and conviction records were sealed through an official

expungement In the common law legal system, an expungement proceeding is a type of lawsuit in which a first time offender of a prior criminal conviction seeks that the records of that earlier process be sealed or destroyed, making the records nonexistent or u ...

, and he is legally no longer a felon.

Bibliography

* ''

Programming Perl ''Programming Perl'', best known as the Camel Book among programmers, is a book about writing programs using the Perl programming language, revised as several editions (1991-2012) to reflect major language changes since Perl version 4. Editions h ...

'', ; ''(2ed)'' * ''

Learning Perl ''Learning Perl'', also known as the llama book, is a tutorial book for the Perl programming language, and is published by O'Reilly Media. The first edition (1993) was authored solely by Randal L. Schwartz, and covered Perl 4. All subsequent edi ...

'', ; ''(2ed)''; ''(3ed)''; ''(4ed)''; ''(5ed)''; ''(6ed)'' (2011); ''(7ed)'' (2016) * '' Intermediate Perl'', (2006); (2ed, 2012) * '' Learning Perl on Win32 Systems'', * '' Learning Perl Objects, References & Modules'' (2003), * '' Effective Perl Programming'', * Preface for '' Object Oriented Perl'', * Collected columns in '' Randal Schwartz's Perls of Wisdom'',

References

External links

*
Author
at

O'Reilly Media O'Reilly Media (formerly O'Reilly & Associates) is an American learning company established by Tim O'Reilly that publishes books, produces tech conferences, and provides an online learning platform. Its distinctive brand features a woodcut of ...

Randal Schwartz photographs
at

Flickr Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and profession ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwartz, Randal L. 1961 births Living people American computer programmers American technology writers Writers from Portland, Oregon Perl writers O'Reilly writers Tektronix people TWiT.tv people