Willem Louis van der Poel (2 December 1926,

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

) is a pioneering

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

computer scientist, who is known for designing one of the first computers to be designed in the Netherlands, the ''Zeer Eenvoudige Binaire Reken Automaat'' (

ZEBRA Zebras (, ) (subgenus ''Hippotigris'') are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped coats. There are three living species: the Grévy's zebra (''Equus grevyi''), plains zebra (''E. quagga''), and the mountain zebra (''E. zeb ...

), translated as ''Very Simple Binary Automatic Calculator''.

Biography

In 1950 Van der Poel obtained an engineering degree in applied science at

Delft University of Technology Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings among ...

, and in 1956 obtained his PhD degree from the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

. The title of his

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

(Ph.D.) thesis was ''The Logical Principles of Some Simple Computers''. From 1950 until 1967, he worked for the Dutch ''Posterijen, Telegrafie en Telefonie'' (Nederland) (PTT, renamed

KPN KPN (in full Koninklijke KPN N.V., also Royal KPN N.V.) is a Dutch landline and mobile telecommunications company. KPN originated from a government-run postal, telegraph and telephone service and is based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. History Un ...

). From 1962 until 1988, he was a part time professor at Delft University of Technology. One of his PhD students was Gerard J. Holzmann. He was involved with

international standard international standard is a technical standard developed by one or more international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use worldwide. The most prominent such organization is the International Or ...

s in programming and informatics, as a member of the

International Federation for Information Processing The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) is a global organisation for researchers and professionals working in the field of computing to conduct research, develop standards and promote information sharing. Established in 196 ...

(IFIP)

IFIP Working Group 2.1 IFIP Working Group 2.1 on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi is a working group of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP). IFIP WG 2.1 was formed as the body responsible for the continued support and maintenance of the progra ...

on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi, which specified, maintains, and supports the

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 ...

ALGOL 60 ALGOL 60 (short for ''Algorithmic Language 1960'') is a member of the ALGOL family of computer programming languages. It followed on from ALGOL 58 which had introduced code blocks and the begin and end pairs for delimiting them, representing a k ...

and

ALGOL 68 ALGOL 68 (short for ''Algorithmic Language 1968'') is an imperative programming language that was conceived as a successor to the ALGOL 60 programming language, designed with the goal of a much wider scope of application and more rigorously de ...

. He was the first

chairperson The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

, from 1962 to 1968. He also contributed to developing the languages ALGOL 68 and

LISP A lisp is a speech impairment in which a person misarticulates sibilants (, , , , , , , ). These misarticulations often result in unclear speech. Types * A frontal lisp occurs when the tongue is placed anterior to the target. Interdental lisping ...

for the ZEBRA. In 1971, Van der Poel was elected a member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

. In 1960, he received, together with H. Mol, the Visser-Neerlandia prize for the construction of a

Braille translator A braille translator is a software program that translates a script into braille and sends it to a braille embosser, which produces a hard copy of the original print text. Only the ''script'' is transformed, not the ''language''. Description Fo ...

Work

Van der Poel is primarily known as a Dutch computer pioneer, designer of Testudo, the PTERA, the ZERO, and the

computers. He is said to be the originator of the ''

zero one infinity rule The Zero one infinity (ZOI) rule is a rule of thumb in software design proposed by early computing pioneer Willem van der Poel. It argues that arbitrary limits on the number of instances of a particular type of data or structure should not be ...

'',http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WillemLouisVanDerPoel which suggests that software designs should not impose arbitrary limits on the number of instances of a particular entity: if more than one instance of it is to be allowed, then the set size should have no fixed limit.

Selected publications

Books

* ''The Logical Principles of Some Simple Computers.'' Thesis, Amsterdam (1956). * ''SERA 69, definierend rapport''. W.L. van der Poel (Ed.), Stichting Nederlands Studiecentrum voor Informatica (1970). * ''Een leven met computers. Afscheidsrede, TU Delft, 26 october 1988.'' Delft University of Technology (1988).

Articles

* "A Simple Electronic Digital Computer." ''Applied Sci. Research'' (1952), p. 367-400. * "Micro-programming and Trickology." In: ''Digitale Informations-wandler'', E.W. Hoffmann. Vieweg, Braunschweig (1961), p. 269-311. * Van der Poel, W.L., C.E. Schaap and G. van der Mey. "New Arithmetical Operators in the Theory of Combinators." ''Proc. Kon. Ned. Akad. v. Wetenschappen'', Sept (1980) p. 271-325.

References

External links

Curriculum Vitae of Willem Louis van der Poel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poel, Willem Van Der 1926 births Living people Dutch computer scientists Scientists from The Hague Delft University of Technology alumni University of Amsterdam alumni Academic staff of the Delft University of Technology Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences