Talk:Leonard H. Tower Jr.

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This article was nominated for deletion on 23 September 2006. The result of the discussion was keep on a (second nomination).

Leonard H. Tower Jr. was a good article nominee, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There are suggestions below for improving the article. Once these are addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake. Reviewed version: October 16, 2006

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An individual covered by or significantly related to this article, Leonard H. Tower Jr., has edited Wikipedia as Lentower (talk · contribs)

Contents 1 TOCright 2 Contributions to FSF and GNU 3 Some references for improving the article 3.1 http://google.com/codesearch?q=%22Len+Tower%22 4 USENIX 5 Another source for A-phi-O and The Tech 6 GA failed

[edit] TOCright

Moved TOCright discussion to User_talk:Lentower. - Lentower 21:03, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Contributions to FSF and GNU

I think the current stub version underrepresents by complete omission Len's programming contributions to the FSF and the GNU projects. I'm not competent to evaluate the primary sources that I did find, and we generally should not use primary sources until they have been evaluated in the secondary literature. I didn't happen to stumble across any such secondary sources while wading through the swamp of google hits. GRBerry 17:11, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

Might I suggest perhaps quoting the primary sources which you did find here? They could serve as reference to help guide further research (and someone with some more insight in the field could take a closer look at them as well). Capi 18:01, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Some references for improving the article

I am copying this comment from the article's AfD, to serve as references for improving the article (I would add to the article myself but am pressed for time right now). Feel free to add more references as you find them, of course:

Comment Just a few notability references I came up with, concerning Tower's role as a speaker for the FSF and general involvement in the FOSS community:

• GNU Bulletin Vol 1, no 1 - Introduces Tower as GNU's #2 man, after Stallman. Mentions Tower (in section "4. C Compiler") as being responsable for the task of redesigning and fully rewriting GCC (one of (if not the) most notable and widely recognized compilers worldwide), which was in its infancy at the time.
• Usenet hits for Tower speaking on GNU and FSF-related BOFs (Birds of a Feather, discussion groups) - Tower was often the spokes-person for GNU and/or FSF (e.g. USENIX, Sun User Group Conference, etc)
• GNU Bulletin Vol 1, no 7 - Tower part of FSF board of directors
• Official AUTHORS file for GNU diff - Tower and 4 others created GNU diff
• GCC docs, Contributors section - Leonard Tower wrote parts of the parser, RTL generator, and RTL definitions, and of the Vax machine description.
• Ghits for Tower and FSF or GNU, excluding most of the bulletins

Capi 14:05, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] http://google.com/codesearch?q=%22Len+Tower%22

http://google.com/codesearch?q=%22Len+Tower%22 will turn up a few more things I worked on. I'll leave it up to others to maybe look and consider editing the article. - Lentower 22:29, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] USENIX

Wasn't Len an official (quasi-official?) liaison between the FSF and USENIX at some point? The number of people who attended his USENIX talks ought to establish his notability beyond any question, if only there was some documentation... maybe someone has a photo? LossIsNotMore 06:29, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Found and added sources. LossIsNotMore 08:18, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Another source for A-phi-O and The Tech

If need be. LossIsNotMore 08:52, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Also really poorly formatted proof that he was a Business Manager at MIT's The Tech newspaper. LossIsNotMore 09:12, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Added both; well, found the PDF counterpart to the 2nd. LossIsNotMore 11:27, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] GA failed

1. Well written? Fail

2. Factually accurate? Pass

3. Broad in coverage? Fail

4. Neutral point of view? Pass

5. Article stability? Pass

6. Images? Fail

Additional comments :

• Len is an avid cyclist and pedestrian who has never owned a car is not really useful to the reader in a lead section.
• The article is not broad enough.
• This article brings elements in the lead that are not to be seen elsewhere in the article.

Although the article is well-referenced, not enough material and not enough coverage is done of that subject rendering the article too short. Good luck on expanding, Lincher 12:10, 16 October 2006 (UTC)