Welcome to my home and office on Possum Kingdom Lake, 120 miles west of Dallas. Over 60 miles long, it was formed in the 1940's by damming the meandering Brazos River in the Palo Pinto mountains. "los Brazos de Dios" is the long name -- "the arms of God".
Overlooking the Lake Don Smith / News of Texas TV	From the Lake

So just who is Bob Bemer?    Edmund Arranga of the COBOL Report says:

"Mr. Bemer’s accomplishments resonate so deeply one almost assumes they have been with us always, snatched out of the ether by a collective consciousness, instead of having been the creation of one man. A short list includes:

• helped create COBOL (as in "Grandfather of" [1])
• coined the words COBOL [2] and CODASYL [3]
• invented the ESCape sequence
• created the PICTURE clause
• helped create and standardize the ASCII character set (as in "Father of" [4])
• put the backslash into the ASCII set
• helped create the 8-bit per byte standard"

Where do you want to go? (this is the site map)

Site Goals and Rules

Contact Bob

Quotes and Credits

Keynote - Dept. of Defense Luncheon

Get a Spare Text Editor

Latest Vignettes!

Documents of Interest

Computer Pioneer Award

Resume

Published Papers

Published Papers - ASCII only

Media Events

How ASCII Came About

Current Projects

Time Engine & Bibliography

Software Forensics

Software Factory

This Site's Cast of Characters

Aid This Site

Bob Bemer's ASCII Characters

And of course our Pièce de Résistance --

Interesting Computer History as seen (sometimes made) by the site proprietor, with a trip log for reference

Interesting Computer History -- Pointers to Other Computer History Sites

 
Our Site Goals and Rules

We hope to educate and still be amusing. This site, not fancy now, will be better. We care more about getting destinations in shape than the signposts (this file) and cosmetics. Some people without superfast connections may be those we want most to reach and interest. So for lots of pictures, go to a movie or rent a cassette. You may expect and demand correct English and spelling. You'll also get some pretty plain pages. We have too many other things to bring you to waste time on difficult graphics. Our pages will be prechecked for size, so that on a medium font setting you won't print a last page with little or nothing on it. We answer complaints and rational e-mail. We accept suggestions for other topics we could treat well and authoritatively.

Everyone should know some earlier history of computers, but that is hard to come by without direction. So our history will be rather like a guided tour. We will surely lecture everyone on the way we think the computer field must go. It has some mighty shortcomings. Many of you have not even seen really good practice. We will arouse and admonish the so-called "computer scientists", trying to persuade them that they have a very civic duty to mankind, because computer software is now, undeniably, running the world for us. Our tone will be generally informal, even chatty, for a good defense against an increasingly complex life. Some pompous people may get offended, but we will not libel anyone.

Bob Bemer Scripps Howard News Service

If the Web, the Internet, ASCII, and laser printers printers are very useful to you -- click here

License plate of Bob Bemer's Ford Expedition Steve Hebert / Abilene Reporter-News

Computer Software Consultant, Futurist and Raconteur:
Specialties: Standards, history, alternative methods and inventive solutions
Key responsibilities: Architectural & visionary lead consultant for major software
and marketing development projects.
Motto (original) for a Half-Century:    ((((DO SOMETHING!) SMALL) USEFUL) NOW!)

Contact Information - Bob & Bettie Bemer:
      bob@bobbemer.com   is our preferred e-mail address
      Home Phone: 940-779-4016      Fax: 940-779-2296

Note 1: According to Admiral Grace Hopper, who called herself "Grandmother of"
Note 2: According to Admiral Grace Hopper, told at COBOL Pioneers Day, 1979
Note 3: According to the Annals of the History of Computing
Note 4: According to Interface Age Magazine, 1978                 GO   Back; to top