My Favorite Tony McCann Story

Of course one of the greatest programmers I had the pleasure to know whilst at college was omitted from My Top Ten Programmers post. His name was Tony McCann and he was my joint Ph.D. advisor. Although John Tucker spent more time with me, Tony’s pragmatic approach and amazing coding knowledge was always helpful to me.

Tony was one of those real coders that began before we had the luxury of compilers and high level languages. He was certainly no Quiche Eater and could out code us all.

I’m reminded of the time when I was attending one of his lectures and he was doing some calculations on those huge scrolling chalk boards they had in those days. At some point some brave soul put up his hand and said: “Dr. McCann I think you have that calculation wrong.” Tony whirled around looking perplexed as he studied the student then looked again at the board. He then realized his mistake and told everyone: “Ah yes, sorry, I was thinking in Hex.” Of course you were Tony!

He was a great character and an amazing coder and I always appreciated his help and insights. Thanks Tony!