F. X. Reid

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F. X. Reid (aka FXR, who purportedly died 2006) was and continues to be the pen name of British computer science academic Mike W. Shields.

Reid has been a long-time and amusing contributor to the British Computer Society FACS Specialist Group newsletter FACS FACTS.[1] He has been an enthusiast for the COMEFROM statement and an expert on its semantics. Apparently reports of FXR's death in 2006 [2] were untrue and his musings continue in the FACS FACTS newsletter.

Reid's most widely-known work is "The Song of Hakawatha," a parody of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem The Song of Hiawatha containing references to hacking, Unix and compilers.[3] It was posted on Usenet by Duncan Sinclair in 1989 (possibly as an April Fool joke) and originated at the University of Kent at Canterbury in the mid 1980s.

[edit] References

  1. ^ FACS FACTS, BCS-FACS, British Computer Society, UK.
  2. ^ Victor Zemantics, Obituary: F.X. Reid. FACS FACTS, Issue 2006-1, March 2006.
  3. ^ F. X. Reid, The Song Of Hakawatha, 1989.

[edit] External links

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