Randal L. Schwartz (born November 22, 1961), also known as merlyn, is an American author, system administrator and programming consultant. He has written several books on the
Perl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Though Perl is not officially an acronym, there are various backronyms in use, including "Practical Extraction and Reporting Language".
Perl was developed ...
programming language, and plays a promotional role within the Perl community. He was a co-host of
FLOSS Weekly
Leo Laporte (; born November 29, 1956) is the former host of '' The Tech Guy'' weekly radio show and founder of TWiT.tv, an Internet podcast network focusing on technology. He is also a former TechTV technology host (1998–2008) and a technology ...
.
In 1995, while working as a consultant for
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...
, he cracked a number of passwords on the company's systems. He was convicted of hacking, sentenced to five years probation, and fined. The conviction was expunged in 2007.
Career
Schwartz is the co-author of several widely used books about
Perl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Though Perl is not officially an acronym, there are various backronyms in use, including "Practical Extraction and Reporting Language".
Perl was developed ...
, a programming language, and has written regular columns about Perl for several computer magazines, including
UNIX Review,
Web Techniques, and the
Perl Journal. He popularized the
Just another Perl hacker signature programs. He is a founding board member of the
Perl Mongers, the worldwide Perl grassroots advocacy organization. He was a member of the Squeak Oversight Board, which oversees the
Squeak
Squeak is an object-oriented, class-based, and reflective programming language. It was derived from Smalltalk-80 by a group that included some of Smalltalk-80's original developers, initially at Apple Computer, then at Walt Disney Imaginee ...
programming language.
He has owned and operated Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. since 1985. After joining as co-host of
FLOSS Weekly
Leo Laporte (; born November 29, 1956) is the former host of '' The Tech Guy'' weekly radio show and founder of TWiT.tv, an Internet podcast network focusing on technology. He is also a former TechTV technology host (1998–2008) and a technology ...
, a
free software
Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...
/
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
(
FLOSS) themed
podcast
A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...
in 2007, he assumed the role of host in 2010 until May 2020. He has done voice work for
StarShipSofa, a science-fiction podcast.
Schwartz's name is also associated with the
Schwartzian transform, an
algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of Rigour#Mathematics, mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algo ...
to efficiently sort a list according to a computation, without repeating the computation many times for each element of the list. He also coined the name
spaceship operator
In computer science, a three-way comparison takes two values A and B belonging to a type with a total order and determines whether A < B, A = B, or A > B in a single operation, in accordance with the mathematical law of trichotomy.
It can ...
for use in his teaching, because it reminded him of the spaceship in an HP
BASIC
Basic or BASIC may refer to:
Science and technology
* BASIC, a computer programming language
* Basic (chemistry), having the properties of a base
* Basic access authentication, in HTTP
Entertainment
* Basic (film), ''Basic'' (film), a 2003 film
...
''
Star Trek
''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...
'' game.
Schwartz is a member of the F/OSS community, and has been named a "Perl Expert" and interviewed by numerous outletsto discuss his views on Perl, Ruby, Smalltalk and other topicsincluding
Dr. Dobb's, Paul dot Com Security TV, The Command Line, PerlCast,
FLOSS Weekly
Leo Laporte (; born November 29, 1956) is the former host of '' The Tech Guy'' weekly radio show and founder of TWiT.tv, an Internet podcast network focusing on technology. He is also a former TechTV technology host (1998–2008) and a technology ...
, ONLamp.com, and InfoQ. Schwartz was also a speaker at the 2011
OSCON conference and a keynote speaker at the 2010
Texas LinuxFest conference.
His various books have been met with positive reviews.
Intel case
In July 1995, Schwartz was prosecuted in the case of ''State of Oregon vs. Randal Schwartz'', which dealt with compromised computer security during his time as a system administrator for
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...
. In the process of performing
penetration testing, he cracked a number of passwords on Intel's systems. Schwartz was originally convicted on three felony counts, with one reduced to a misdemeanor, but on February 1, 2007, his arrest and conviction records were sealed through an official
expungement, and he is legally no longer a felon.
Bibliography
* ''
Programming Perl'', ; ''(2ed)''
* ''
Learning Perl'', ; ''(2ed)''; ''(3ed)''; ''(4ed)''; ''(5ed)''; ''(6ed)'' (2011); ''(7ed)'' (2016)
* ''
Intermediate Perl'', (2006); (2ed, 2012)
* ''
Learning Perl on Win32 Systems'',
* ''
Learning Perl Objects, References & Modules''
(2003),
* ''
Effective Perl Programming'',
* Preface for ''
Object Oriented Perl'',
* Collected columns in ''
Randal Schwartz's Perls of Wisdom'',
References
External links
*
Authorat
O'Reilly Media
O'Reilly Media, Inc. (formerly O'Reilly & Associates) is an American learning company established by Tim O'Reilly that provides technical and professional skills development courses via an online learning platform. O'Reilly also publishes b ...
Randal Schwartz photographsat
Flickr
Flickr ( ) is an image hosting service, image and Online video platform, video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was previously a co ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwartz, Randal L.
1961 births
Living people
American computer programmers
American technology writers
Writers from Portland, Oregon
Perl writers
O'Reilly writers
Tektronix people
TWiT.tv people