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	\| spouse = [[Barbara J. Grosz]] (divorced), James R. Hughson (deceased), Michael J. Golub		\| spouse = [[Barbara J. Grosz]] (divorced), James R. Hughson (deceased), Michael J. Golub
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	== Literature ==		== Literature ==
	Some stories about him are included in the book ''[[Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution]]''. An interview with him is printed in ''[[Coders at Work]]''.		Some stories about him are included in the book ''[[Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution]]''. An interview with him is printed in ''[[Coders at Work]]''. [[Bjarne Stroustrup]] attributes to Deutsch the epigraph of Chapter 4 of ''The C++ Programming Language'' -- "To iterate is human, to recurse is divine."

	==References==		==References==

imported>Asalewski: Update reference for "The LISP Implementation for the PDP-1 Computer": use 'cite book' template to allow for archive copy ('archive-url', 'archive-date', 'url-status') and other additional metadata.

2025-02-27T00:16:52Z

Update reference for "The LISP Implementation for the PDP-1 Computer": use 'cite book' template to allow for archive copy ('archive-url', 'archive-date', 'url-status') and other additional metadata.

New page

{{Short description|American computer scientist}}
{{redirect-distinguish|Aladdin Enterprises|Aladdin Systems|Aladdin Knowledge Systems}}
{{Infobox person
| name = L Peter Deutsch
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1946|08|07|mf=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]], [[United States|U.S.]]
| occupation =
| spouse = [[Barbara J. Grosz]] (divorced), James R. Hughson (deceased), Michael J. Golub
| children =
| alma_mater = [[University of California, Berkeley]]
| website =
}}

'''L Peter Deutsch''' (born '''Laurence Peter Deutsch''' on August 7, 1946, in [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]]) is an American computer scientist and composer. He is the founder of Aladdin Enterprises and creator of [[Ghostscript]], a free software [[PostScript]] and [[PDF]] interpreter.

Deutsch's other work includes the [[Smalltalk]] implementation that inspired [[Java (software platform)|Java]] [[just-in-time compilation]] technology about 15 years later.<ref>{{citation|title=A Conversation with James Gosling|work=ACM Queue|volume=2|issue=5|date=31 August 2004|url=https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1017013}}</ref>

== Name ==
Deutsch changed his legal first name from "Laurence" to "L" on September 12, 2007.<ref>{{cite web |title= Case CIV464587 - In Re: Laurence Deutsch |work= San Mateo County Civil Court |date= September 12, 2007 |url= http://openaccess1.sanmateocourt.org/openaccess/CIVIL/civildetails.asp?casenumber=464587&courtcode=A&casetype=CIV&dsn= |access-date= April 16, 2011 }}{{Dead link|date=February 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> His published work and other public references before that time generally use the name ''L. Peter Deutsch'' (with a dot after the ''L'').

==Early life==
Deutsch's father was the physicist [[Martin Deutsch]], a professor at MIT.

==Contributions to computer science==
Deutsch wrote the [[PDP-1]] [[Lisp (programming language)|Lisp]] 1.5 implementation and first [[REPL]], Basic PDP-1 LISP, "while still in short pants" and finished it in 1963, when he was 17 years old.<ref>{{cite book
|title=The LISP Implementation for the PDP-1 Computer
|author1=L. Peter Deutsch
|author2=Edmund C Berkeley
|date=March 1964
|url=http://s3data.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/DEC.pdp_1.1964.102650371.pdf
|url-status=live
|access-date=2025-02-26
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418144710/http://s3data.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/DEC.pdp_1.1964.102650371.pdf
|archive-date=2016-04-18
}}</ref> He collaborated with [[Calvin Mooers]] on the [[TRAC (programming language)|TRAC]] programming language and wrote its first implementation, on the PDP-1, in 1964.<ref name="T64">{{cite web |url=http://tracfoundation.org/t64tech.htm |title=TRAC Language: T64 |website=tracfoundation.org |access-date=15 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010408052535/http://tracfoundation.org/t64tech.htm |archive-date=8 April 2001 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="trac_paper">
{{cite book |first1=C.N. |last1=Mooers |author-link=Calvin Mooers |first2=L.P. |last2=Deutsch |author-link2=L. Peter Deutsch |chapter=TRAC, A Text-Handling Language |title=Proceeding ACM '65 Proceedings of the 1965 20th national conference |pages=229–246 |year=1965 |doi=10.1145/800197.806048 |s2cid=40013081 }} [http://tracfoundation.org/trac64/handling.htm full text]
</ref>

From 1964 to 1967, during his study at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], he worked with [[Butler Lampson]] and [[Charles P. Thacker]] on the [[Berkeley Timesharing System]], which became the standard [[operating system]] for the [[SDS 940]] mainframe that would later be used by [[Tymshare]], [[NLS (computer system)|NLS]], and [[Community Memory]].

Deutsch is the author of several [[Request for Comments]] (RFCs), [[Fallacies of distributed computing|The Eight Fallacies of Distributed Computing]], and originated the [[Deutsch limit]] adage about [[visual programming language]]s.

Deutsch received a Ph.D. in [[computer science]] from the [[University of California, Berkeley]] in 1973,<ref>{{Citation|author= L. Peter Deutsch |title=An interactive program verifier |publisher=[[University of California, Berkeley]] |date=June 1973 |url=http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/LISP/interlisp_family/#Deutsch_PIVOT_}}</ref> and has previously worked at [[PARC (company)|Xerox PARC]] and [[Sun Microsystems]]. In 1994, he was inducted as a [[List of Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery|Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery]].

== Composer ==
After auditing undergraduate music courses at [[Stanford University]], in January 2009, he entered the postgraduate music program at [[California State University, East Bay]], and was awarded a [[Master of Arts]] (M.A.) in March 2011. As of mid-2011, he has had six compositions performed at public concerts, and now generally identifies himself as a composer rather than a software developer or engineer.

== Literature ==
Some stories about him are included in the book ''[[Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution]]''. An interview with him is printed in ''[[Coders at Work]]''.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/LISP/interlisp_family/#Deutsch_PIVOT_ L. Peter Deutsch's PIVOT program verification system (thesis and source code)]
*RFCs authored or co-authored by L. Peter Deutsch: RFC 190, RFC 446, RFC 550, RFC 567, RFC 606, RFC 1950, RFC 1951 and RFC 1952
*{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041013082602/http://devlinux.org/deutsch-interview.html |date=October 13, 2004 |title=L. Peter Deutsch in conversation with Stig Hackvän }}
* [http://www.major2nd.com/users/lpd/music/ L Peter Deutsch's web page related to music, including link to scores and MIDI files]

{{Smalltalk programming language}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deutsch, L. Peter}}
[[Category:1946 births]]
[[Category:Free software programmers]]
[[Category:1994 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Scientists at PARC (company)]]
[[Category:Kernel programmers]]

{{US-compu-bio-stub}}

L. Peter Deutsch - Revision history

imported>WikiOriginal-9: unlink U.S. per MOS:GEOLINK

imported>Asalewski: Update reference for "The LISP Implementation for the PDP-1 Computer": use 'cite book' template to allow for archive copy ('archive-url', 'archive-date', 'url-status') and other additional metadata.