Anthony James Barr (born September 24, 1940), aka Tony Barr or Jim Barr, is an American

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Programming languages are described in terms of their Syntax (programming languages), syntax (form) and semantics (computer science), semantics (meaning), usually def ...

designer,

software engineer Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining software applications. It involves applying engineering principles and computer programming expertise to develop ...

and

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

. He is best known for developing the SAS software suite and for co-founding

SAS Institute SAS Institute (or SAS, pronounced "sass") is an American multinational developer of analytics and artificial intelligence software based in Cary, North Carolina. SAS develops and markets a suite of analytics software ( also called SAS), which ...

. SAS software is used for

data management Data management comprises all disciplines related to handling data as a valuable resource, it is the practice of managing an organization's data so it can be analyzed for decision making. Concept The concept of data management emerged alongsi ...

analytics Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data, which also falls under and directly relates to the umbrella term, data sc ...

and

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

. Among his other notable contributions are techniques for automated lumber yield optimization and the Automated Classification of Medical Entities (ACME).

Early life and education

Barr was born in New York City and raised in

Summit, New Jersey Summit is the northernmost City (New Jersey), city of Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located within the New York metropolitan area. Situated on a ridge in north Jersey, northern–central Jersey, centra ...

, where he graduated from Summit High School in 1958. Growing up, he was inspired by the biographies of Ben Franklin, Marconi,

Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (; born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born Canadian Americans, Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He als ...

, Wright Brothers and Sikorsky as well as visits to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and the Museum of Natural History in New York City. Barr received a BS in Applied Physics (with honors) at North Carolina State University in 1962, during which time he began an assistantship at the NCSU Computing Center. In 1963, he received a

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

Fellowship to study physical oceanography at

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it i ...

, and a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship at NCSU. He received his MS in Physics at NCSU in 1968. Barr was named 1995 Distinguished Alumnus, North Carolina State University, College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

Career and contributions

SAS software and SAS Institute

In 1966, Barr began working on the

SAS System SAS (previously "Statistical Analysis System") is a statistical software suite developed by SAS Institute for data management, advanced analytics, multivariate analysis, business intelligence, and predictive analytics. SAS was developed at No ...

, a family of statistical analysis software used in data management, machine learning and analytics. It is now widely used internationally in

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

industry Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery * The wider industrial sector ...

, and

academia An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

. In September 1966, Barr presented the conceptual ideas of SAS to members of the Committee on Statistical Software of the

University Statisticians of the Southern Experiment Stations The University Statisticians of the Southern Experiment Stations (USSES) was a coalition of southern Universities formed in the mid-1960s for the purpose of coordinating efforts in the development of statistical software. This coalition was largel ...

(USSES) in

Athens, Georgia Athens is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Downtown Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta. The University of Georgia, the state's flagship public university and an Research I university, ...

.Barr 2006b. Barr had earlier created an analysis-of-variance modeling language inspired by the notation of statistician Maurice Kendall. He developed it in

assembly language In computing, assembly language (alternatively assembler language or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence bet ...

on the

IBM 1410 The IBM 1410, a member of the IBM 1400 series, was a decimal computer with a variable word length that was announced by IBM on September 12, 1960 and marketed as a midrange business computer. It was withdrawn on March 30, 1970. Overview The 1 ...

, as a graduate student at

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and p ...

from 1962 to 1963. Dr. A. Grandage, author of

IBM 650 The IBM 650 Magnetic Drum Data-Processing Machine is an early digital computer produced by IBM in the mid-1950s. It was the first mass-produced computer in the world. Almost 2,000 systems were produced, the last in 1962, and it was the firs ...

analysis-of-variance programs, advised on some of the statistical computations. This was followed by a multiple regression program with a flexible input format and with algebraic transformation of variables, in 1963 to 1964. Drawing on those programs, along with his experience with structured data files, he created SAS, placing statistical procedures into a formatted file framework. Barr's experience with structured data files was gained while working on the Formatted File System, (see

below Below may refer to: *Earth *Ground (disambiguation) *Soil *Floor * Bottom (disambiguation) *Less than *Temperatures below freezing *Hell or underworld People with the surname * Ernst von Below (1863–1955), German World War I general * Fred Belo ...

). From 1966 to 1968, Barr developed the fundamental structure and language of SAS. In 1968, Barr began collaborating with other programmers,Barr & Goodnight, et al. 1976:"The SAS Staff". Attribution of contributions to SAS 72 and SAS 76. most prominently

James Goodnight James Howard Goodnight (born January 6, 1943) is an American billionaire businessman and software developer. He has been the CEO of SAS since 1976, which he co-founded that year with other faculty members of North Carolina State University. As ...

, a student at North Carolina State University who became a co-leader of the project and developed procedures for general linear modelling for the system. Barr designed and implemented the programming language, data management, report writing, and systems areas of the evolving system. SAS 71, the first official version of SAS, was released in 1971. John Sall joined the project in 1973 and developed various procedures, including procedures for

econometrics Econometrics is an application of statistical methods to economic data in order to give empirical content to economic relationships. M. Hashem Pesaran (1987). "Econometrics", '' The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, p. 8 p. 8 ...

, data management and matrix manipulation. In 1976, Goodnight decided to begin developing and marketing SAS full time, and the SAS Institute, Inc. was incorporated by Barr, Goodnight, Sall, and Jane Helwig, with Barr holding the largest share (40%). He sold his shares in 1979.

Automated Classification of Medical Entities (ACME)

Barr created the

ACME Acme is Ancient Greek (ἀκμή; English transliteration: ''akmē'') for "the peak", "zenith" or "prime". It may refer to: Arts, entertainment and games * ''Acme'' (album), an album by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion * Acme and Septimius, a fic ...

program for the

National Center for Health Statistics The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is a U.S. government agency that provides statistical information to guide actions and policies to improve the public health of the American people. It is a unit of the Centers for Disease Control ...

from 1967 to 1969.

Automated Lumber Yield Optimization

Barr with A.G. Mullin computerized and sold a manufacturing system for cutting the most usable lumber from each board. According to the National Association of Furniture Manufacturers, this innovation saved millions for the industry.

Linking Loader for the IBM/360

In 1968, Barr pioneered a Compile and go system for IBM OS/360 marketed by University Computing Company. The use of the Loader cut typical program testing times by 25 percent. IBM did not offer the equivalent Loader for over 18 months after the Barr Loader was commercially available.Barr 2006a.

IBM Workstation Simulators

In 1971, Barr created the first non-IBM HASP

terminal emulator A terminal emulator, or terminal application, is a computer program that emulates a video terminal within some other display architecture. Though typically synonymous with a shell or text terminal, the term ''terminal'' covers all remote term ...

. Marketed by the University Computing Company (UCC), the HASP emulator gave a significant performance increase over the IBM 2780 emulator he had developed for UCC in 1969. The emulators were developed on the

PDP-8 The PDP-8 is a family of 12-bit minicomputers that was produced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It was the first commercially successful minicomputer, with over 50,000 units sold during the model's lifetime. Its basic design follows the pi ...

minicomputer and allowed COPE terminals to communicate with the IBM/360 and

IBM/370 The IBM System/370 (S/370) is a range of IBM mainframe computers announced as the successors to the System/360 family on June 30, 1970. The series mostly maintains backward compatibility with the S/360, allowing an easy migration path for cus ...

. In 1971, Barr also implemented the HASP workstation for M & M Computer Industries,

Orange, California Orange is a city located in northern Orange County, California, United States. It is approximately north of the county seat, Santa Ana, California, Santa Ana. Orange is unusual in this region because many of the homes in its Old Town District ...

. Implemented on the

Data General Nova The Nova is a series of 16-bit computing, 16-bit minicomputers released by the American company Data General. The Nova family was very popular in the 1970s and ultimately sold tens of thousands of units. The first model, known simply as "Nov ...

minicomputer, the program became the

Singer Corporation Singer Corporation is an American manufacturer of consumer sewing machines, first established as I. M. Singer & Co. in 1851 by Isaac Singer, Isaac M. Singer with New York lawyer Edward Cabot Clark, Edward C. Clark. Best known for its sewing mac ...

Remote Batch Terminal. Both Singer and UCC sold their terminal divisions to

Harris Corporation Harris Corporation was an American technology company, defense contractor, and information technology service (economics), services provider that produced wireless equipment, tactical radios, electronic systems, night vision device, night visi ...

, which continued to market the products. In 1983, Barr developed hardware and software for performing HASP remote job entry communication on the IBM PC. His company, Barr Systems, Inc., marketed and sold Barr HASP, and went on to implement and support

Bisync Binary Synchronous Communication (BSC or Bisync) is an IBM character-oriented, half-duplex link protocol, announced in 1967 after the introduction of System/360. It replaced the synchronous transmit-receive (STR) protocol used with second gener ...

and SNA SDLC

workstations A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. The term ''workstat ...

and gateways, along with other

data communications Data communication, including data transmission and data reception, is the transfer of data, signal transmission, transmitted and received over a Point-to-point (telecommunications), point-to-point or point-to-multipoint communication chann ...

and output management products.

Formatted File System (FFS)

Barr was employed with IBM Federal Systems Division at

the Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The building was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

from 1964 to 1966. There he worked on the NIPS Formatted File System. FFS, a generalized data base management system for retrieval and report writing, was one of the first data management systems to take advantage of defined file structure for data storage and retrieval efficiency.Fry 1976. Assigned to work with the

National Military Command Center The National Military Command Center (NMCC) is a The Pentagon, Pentagon command and communications center for the National Command Authority (United States), National Command Authority (i.e., the President of the United States and the United Sta ...

, the

information processing In cognitive psychology, information processing is an approach to the goal of understanding human thinking that treats cognition as essentially Computing, computational in nature, with the mind being the ''software'' and the brain being the ''hard ...

branch of the

Joint Chiefs of Staff The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, which advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and ...

, Barr rewrote and enhanced FFS, implementing three of its five major components: retrieval, sorting, and file update. His work featured the innovation of a uniform lexical analyzer for all languages in the system with a uniform method of handling all error messages. Working with FFS introduced Barr to the potential of the defined file structure, which was to become a central concept of SAS (

above Above may refer to: *Above (artist) Tavar Zawacki (b. 1981, California) is a Polish, Portuguese - American abstract artist and internationally recognized visual artist based in Berlin, Germany. From 1996 to 2016, he created work under the ...

Personal life

In 2021, Barr and his wife Olga donated $1 million to the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention to support the museum's youth programming. The museum named the Tony & Olga Barr Gallery in their honor.

Patents, publications, and education

Patents

* Barr, Tony, Satisfaction Metrics and Methods of Implementation
8,380,560
2-19-2013, Cl. 705-7.38. * Barr, Anthony J. and Mullin, Alexander G., Apparatus and method for maximizing utilization of elongated stock
4,017,976
4-19-1977, Cl. 235-151.l. * Barr, Anthony J. and Mullin, Alexander G., Apparatus for optimizing the yield of usable pieces from boards and the like
3,942,021
3-2-76, Cl. 250-572.000. * Barr, Anthony J. and Mullin, Alexander G., Apparatus and method for optimizing the yield of usable pieces from boards and the like
3,931,501
1-6-76, Cl. 235-151.100.

Publications

* * * * *

Notes

References

* * Barr, Anthony J. (2006)
Professional History
* Barr, Anthony J. (2006)

* Barr, Anthony J. (2010)
SAS Beginnings
* * * * * * *

br>About the Mortality Medical Data System
* * North Carolina State University
College of Physical and Mathematical SciencesDistinguished Alumni
* * * * *

External links

Anthony James Barr Biographical Summary

Barr-Mullin, Inc.

Barr Systems, Inc.

National Center for Health Statistics

North Carolina State University

College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences

Distinguished Alumnus

SAS Institute

"Unification of Computing, Language, Philosophy & Mathematics" talk, IHMC, 2023.

"A Model of Reality Envisioned" talk, Cade Museum, 2019."Programming in the Language of Thought" talk, AITP/NCFL, 2018.

"From Sir Ronald Fisher to SAS76" talk, SAS Meeting, London, UK, 2018.

"The Spiritual Dimension to Computing" talk, University of Florida, 2018.

"The Search for Understanding" talk, Biostatistics/University of Florida, 2017.

"SAS Beginnings" talk, NC State, 2016.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barr, Anthony J. 1940 births Living people American inventors Programming language designers American software engineers American businesspeople in timber American computer businesspeople Businesspeople in software American information technology businesspeople Engineers from New York (state) People from Summit, New Jersey Summit High School (New Jersey) alumni Engineers from New Jersey