Erik Naggum
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Erik Naggum (June 13, 1965 – June 17, 2009) was a Norwegian computer programmer recognized for his work in the fields of SGML, Emacs and Lisp. Since the early 1990s he was also a provocative participant on various
Usenet Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it wa ...
discussion groups. Naggum made significant contributions to RFC 1123, which defines and discusses the requirements for Internet host software, and RFC 2049, which defines electronic information transfer of various binary formats through e-mail. In a 1999 newspaper article in ''
Dagbladet ''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newspa ...
'', he was interviewed about his aggressive, confrontational participation in Usenet discussion groups. Erik later stated his motto to be: "Some people are little more than herd animals, flocking together whenever the world becomes uncomfortable … I am not one of those people. If I had a motto, it would probably be Herd thither, me hither." His death on June 17, 2009 (aged 44), was caused by a massive bleeding ulcer, related to
ulcerative colitis Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a long-term condition that results in inflammation and ulcers of the colon and rectum. The primary symptoms of active disease are abdominal pain and diarrhea mixed with blood (hematochezia). Weight loss, fever, and ...
, which he was diagnosed with about 15 years before his death.


Works


SGML

Naggum was Chairman of the SGML SIGhyper, the SGML special interest group on hypertext and multimedia (see
HyTime HyTime (''Hypermedia/Time-based Structuring Language'') is a markup language that is an application of SGML. HyTime defines a set of hypertext-oriented element types that, in effect, supplement SGML and allow SGML document authors to build hyperte ...
). His technical commentary on ISO 8879:1986 in the archives of comp.text.sgml, in terms of both high quality and sheer mass, was especially appreciated.


Lisp

The Long, Painful History of Time, an article in which Naggum describes how the concept of universal time and time zones can be handled well in Lisp code.


Usenet

Erik contributed an enormous number of postings to Usenet. 14,300 of them are "on record", but in many cases Erik used the "X-No-Archive" header when posting, a parameter requesting services like Google Groups not to archive the message.


Activism

In 1995, Erik started a journalism watch-group project on the web, campaigning to get a journalist sacked from
Aftenposten ( in the masthead; ; Norwegian for "The Evening Post") is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen) and estimated 1.2 milli ...
following the publication of a sensationalist story about how
Internet Relay Chat Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called '' channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat an ...
channels were used to trade
child pornography Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a ...
.


Emacs

Erik Naggum contributed to the
free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...
project Emacs text editor for almost a decade.


Standardization work


IEEE

Working group member of the POSIX.1-2008 / IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 and The Open Group Technical Standard Base Specifications, Issue 7.


IETF

Erik is listed as a major contributor in RFC 1123. Contributed to the requirement that Internet mail should include the four-digit representation of years, and thus avoid
Y2K The year 2000 problem, also known as the Y2K problem, Y2K scare, millennium bug, Y2K bug, Y2K glitch, Y2K error, or simply Y2K refers to potential computer errors related to the formatting and storage of calendar data for dates in and after ...
issues.


Controversy

Erik Naggum was highly controversial. When he was passionate about something, which he was on many subjects, he eagerly and often harshly argued for his point of view. An example of this i
his rant
about
XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable ...
being misdesigned and, especially, misused. One such example would b
the diatribe against Martin Bryan
posted in 1992. Erik Naggum hated
Perl Perl is a family of two high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming languages. "Perl" refers to Perl 5, but from 2000 to 2019 it also referred to its redesigned "sister language", Perl 6, before the latter's name was offic ...
with a passion, and considered Perl to be a problem, not a problem solver. He disliked
C++ C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...
, though not as much as he hated Perl, but he generally thought that C++ was too difficult to understand to such a degree that only about 5 people on the planet truly understood it and hence it was of little value for humanity. Erik Naggum several times stated that stupidity, or rather the lack of willingness of individuals to acquire knowledge about a subject, argument or read other people's arguments with an open mind, was more or less a criminal offense. He was known for his polemic aggression towards what he considered to be ignorant individuals. Much of what he wrote was so full of sarcasm and irony that it could be difficult to understand what he truly believed in and what were general exaggerations made just to make a point.


References


Further reading

* * * * * * * * * *


External links

*
The Erik Naggum comp.lang.lisp archive
by Zachary Beane
Erik Naggum: digital mausoleum
- a mailing list for organizing and making available texts by Erik Naggum {{DEFAULTSORT:Naggum, Erik 1965 births 2009 deaths Lisp (programming language) people Norwegian computer programmers Emacs Usenet people