The Formal Biography
Ms Lathwell had an early start to her career in the computer operations department of a Toronto based technology company. This company established one of the worlds first private international communications networks in the 1980′s which was quickly adopted by financial institutions around the world. Thus, while pursuing a programming career Ms Lathwell developed an in-depth understanding of financial markets.
Being in the right place at the right time, Ms. Lathwell observed, first hand, the concurrent growth and development of technology and international finance. Ms Lathwell’s current project involves researching the history of APL (A Programming Language) and its descendant array processing languages (K, Q & J). APL was invented by Canadian Kenneth E. Iverson and has been used for over 50 years in industry, through the drama of successive market crashes to the evolution of forensic mathematics.
While Ms Lathwell was building her career, she also nurtured an interest in the visual arts and story telling. Armed with a BA from the University of Toronto and a certificate from the Canadian Film Centre, Ms Lathwell has launched an initiative to collect the stories of the rise, fall and rebirth of APL and the quirky minds behind this Canadian invention.
The Informal Biography
My name is Catherine Lathwell and my involvement with APL and the APL community is literally a life long experience. I am the daughter of Richard Lathwell, one of the original developers of APL recruited by IBM in 1966. Does “I’ve Been Moved” mean anything to you?
In my lifetime, with no real help from me, I’ve gone from being the weird Canadian kid in the United States with a father who has some incomprehensible job, and is therefore suspicious, to a “Geek”.
(PS – Geeks are now cool. Whew. I’m finally in. Just in the nick of time!)
Anyway, I officially started my career at age sixteen as a summer student in the Operations department of IP Sharp in Toronto in 1981. This first job evolved over the years into a full fledged career where I moved through the ranks as a Sharp APL in-house support representative, APL programmer & research and development manager with Reuters.
While I was building this career, I also nurtured a love and interest in the visual arts and story telling, graduating with distinction from the University of Toronto in Fine Arts and English Literature in 1994. Then, in 2003 I entered an exclusive post graduate programme at the Canadian Film Centre specifically designed for people, like myself, with competencies in both technology and the arts.
And during my tenure at the Canadian Film Centre, I fell in love with video and began dreaming of making a film about APL.
If you want to see some of the things I’ve been doing over the last few years:
You can watch some videos I have made at – My Videos Page
Or if you want to know how I think about art look at – My Personal Page
If you want to see the insightful article written by Guy Dixon of The Globe and Mail, about the interactive film I made while at the Canadian Film Centre see: Getting Clued into Queen Street West, The Globe and Mail, Saturday July 24, 2004. Or go to My Honours Page
If you need me to promote myself some more, let me know – this seems like enough to me.
Catherine, let me relate a David Steinbrook anecdote.
David and I became friends while he was in Philadelphia,
and I was running the IPSA Miami branch. Aviation business
took me to PHL several times. Anyway, for a reason I forget,
David came to Miami. As the genial host that I was, I took him
to the beach. He said he had never seen the ocean before.
That blew me away. He was a genuine individual with musical
skills beyond normal comprehension. I didn’t know he had more
than one wife – I only ever met Sarah.
“What Curtis didn’t know is that I would be more excited by seeing the meeting was also attended by the late David Steinbrook. David was the first person to actually teach me APL, in the I P Sharp Philadelphia branch office in 1981.”
In fact, I was talking to one of David’s ex-wives
Hi again, Catherine.
Let me know how I can help with your movie.
Sincerely,
Howard A. Peelle
this was a great read!!
I had no idea you were a geek:)
The St. John’s International Film and Video Festival is a great place to send your work along.
Anita McGee is the new ED.
Please tell her I referred you, as I will be introducing many folks to your work I hope.
Best
Renee
Katherine,
You might be interested in a post I made a few years back on some discussion forums, At the time I occasionally used the pseudonym “teledon” for postings. I thought that the issues brought up by the various non-APL/J users were interesting, and typical of what most programmers unfamiliar with APL/J think. Perhaps the insight can help you present the history of APL to the unwashed masses…
http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/1919
http://rosettacode.org/wiki/User_talk:Dkf
Well met Catherine and Colleagues – and Brava.
Toward more connecting,
LDMF
*Respectful Interfaces*
Dear Dr. Misek-Falkoff,
Thank you very much for your support.
Catherine
Catherine: I just came across a cool little video of a 1975 ad for the IBM 5100. The ad itself does not make mention of APL, but the article on the RetroThing website does:
http://www.retrothing.com/2011/01/ibm-5100-advertising-the-first-portable-computer.html
Cheers,
donw
P.S. My email address has changed, as I retired (yay!)
Thanks, Don. That’s great. And Congratulations on your retirement. What’s next?
I may finally have time to take my view camera out into the field any day the weather’s looking good, rather than have to choose whether to shoot film or get in a round of golf on those precious Sundays. I could never do both on a weekend, as there were always too many urgent chores to squeeze in on the weekend as well.
And then there’s cooking, my other passion. The first time it was my turn to cook after I’d become “gainfully unemployed” (we switch over every half-month between cooking and cleaning), I did go a tad overboard with sauces and all things buttery. Now I’m having to swim extra hard to lose the whipping cream molecules that seem to have adhered. Dang. But that duck with cherry sauce was certainly worth it!
You know how every retiree says that they’re busier than they ever were? Well, it’s absolutely true. You’ll (someday) be amazed at how much stuff suddenly arises out of nowhere, that absolutely needs to be done. Already this morning, I’ve found three things I want to clear out, but I’m hoping to get in nine holes hacking around the golf course this afternoon, if the showers hold off… That’s a trade-off I don’t mind making.
Cheers,
donw
That’s the spirit! And… Er…. Don… I retired in 2000 at 35. How else do you think I get away with all slogging about? BUT It is time for me to jump back into the fray, if only to feed my ambitions for this project. There’s so much potential, I can’t let it go.
I think the phrase you are looking for is “retired from paid employment”, first used by Ken in A Personal View of APL in 1991.
Hi Catherine! I’m an old APLer who joined STSC as a high school “elf” in 1972. I worked there for a summer, then for four years, and got to meet and know many of the greats of APL. Then I spent my twenties wandering North America and ended up in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. I also “retired” at age 29 and yet have been keeping busy ever since. Your blog doesn’t seem to contain your email address or other contact info, so here’s mine:
John Gilmore
gnu@lathwell.toad.com
+1 415 221 6524
PS: What did I do for APL? Hmm, made 666 BOX transfer messages across two mainframes; originally implemented the quad-names for STSC; sped up various primitives; attended Minnowbrook and visited Toronto. And this week I updated a bunch of Wikipedia pages around APL, starting with Larry Breed’s.
Thanks for passing by and sharing a bit of your story, John.
My email is clathwell@gmail.com
Catherine, I just now came across your blog, and doing so flashed so many memories through my head. I retired from IBM in 1991, after a 32-year career, mostly in the IBM Palo Alto Scientific Center. I am very proud of my invention of SCAMP (Scientific Center APL Machine Portable), which now resides in the Smithsonian Institute.
Being a “West Coaster”, I met your Dad and Ken Iverson on only several occasions. Through the evangelism of Mike Montalbano I was introduced to the magical world of APL. Being educated as a rock-solid chemical engineer (PhD – Case Institute of Technology, 1960), I was trained as a disciple of FORTRAN. APL opened up a whole new world for me — a new way of thinking — and this no doubt played a key role in the SCAMP development.
You have a pleasing way of phrasing your thoughts as they head through your fingers onto a keyboard. Somehow your writing reminds me of APL too — a main thought comes out, but not without causing a number of other salient observations; cool! I was also interested to find that you have found a way to channel your creativity into both cinema and APL — sweet!
Best of luck with your book!
Paul Friedl
Dear Paul,
Thank you for your lovely note. I hope I get to meet you the next time I am in Palo Alto. Or perhaps we can take a field trip to the Smithsonian! I did not know about SCAMP before. Thank you for sharing. That’s great!
And I think you’re definitely right, there should also be a book. Now, if only someone could teach me how to navigate the book publishing industry!