Thanks IIT, Twice

IIT staff helped me dress for the occasion. page

The Illinois Institute of Technology shared its computer with my high school where I learned to program in the mid '60s. This year, it shared again when it recognized my work with an honorary PhD. page

I told the deans and other honored guests how IIT's system had lit a lightbulb for me when I came to understand the distinction between boolean expressions and the conditional logic that depended on them.

Aside: like programming, a wiki is a place to name ideas and then use those names in sentences.

These distinction had recently distilled in both theory and practice within the new field of computer science. Then and still today many "learn to program" systems favor sequence over this most important idea, choosing and naming representations.

The commencement was surely a happy day for the 2,500 graduates. Without a "speaking role" I was free to enjoy those who did address the graduates. The words were true and relevant and clearly heart-felt from the people I'd met the night before.