Farewell to John Warnock, an internet pioneer whose invention actually made the world better (techxplore.com)
from L4s@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 24 Aug 2023 22:00
https://lemmy.world/post/3774871

Farewell to John Warnock, an internet pioneer whose invention actually made the world better::In June 1969, John E. Warnock achieved a milestone of sorts at the University of Utah by producing the shortest Ph.D. dissertation in the university’s history.

#technology

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InFerNo@lemmy.ml on 24 Aug 2023 22:54 next collapse

Tldr He wrote a paper that outlined a portable document format: the PDF.

lossykittens@reddthat.com on 25 Aug 2023 00:15 next collapse

Prett incredible. Imagine having that on your resume

czarrie@lemm.ee on 25 Aug 2023 00:38 collapse

And then submitting that resume as a 10pt Arial Word doc

LoneNumeral9@lemmy.world on 25 Aug 2023 03:31 collapse

Indeed, John Warnock’s invention of the PDF format has had a significant impact on the way we interact with documents in the digital age. It’s remarkable how something as seemingly simple as a file format can revolutionize desktop publishing and streamline the sharing of documents across different platforms. His contributions to the internet and technology will certainly be remembered.

infeeeee@lemm.ee on 24 Aug 2023 23:32 next collapse

Maybe it was a short dissertation, but the standard grew huge, it’s 986 pages: www.iso.org/standard/75839.html

This is the reason there are few pdf editors, and their features vary greatly, it’s a huge task to impement that standard from scratch.

primbin@lemmy.one on 25 Aug 2023 02:20 next collapse

He co-invented PDF in '91. His PhD thesis, referenced in the summary, is a solution to the hidden line problem in computer graphics.

JTskulk@lemmy.world on 25 Aug 2023 03:34 collapse

He made the world better but then he made Adobe.