Lawrence Moser "Larry" Breed (July 17, 1940 – May 16, 2021)[1] was a
computer scientist,
artist and
inventor, best known for his involvement in the programming language
APL.
Career
As an undergraduate at
Stanford University in 1961, he created the first computer animation language and system and used it at Stanford football half-times to coordinate images produced by a 100 ft-by-100 ft array of rooters holding up colored cards.[2]
Breed became a significant contributor to the
Burning Man event, under the
playa name of Ember. He coined the term "MOOP" (matter out of place), and conceived and built the first trash fence to capture windborne debris.[14][15][16][17] He created the spiraling, flaming sculpture "Chaotick", the playa’s longest-running art piece besides the Man himself,[16][18][19] and built artistic bicycle light effects.[20] He edited and proofread the Black Rock Gazette newspaper, a role in which he continued as a co-founder and director of its successor the
Black Rock Beacon,[21] and edited other Burning Man materials.[22] As co-founder of the Earth Guardians, Breed promoted the "Leave No Trace" ethos, particularly in post-event cleanup.[23][16]
In 1973 and 1974 he took first place, with co-solver Donna Breed, in the Dictionary Rally.[1]
Gray-B-Gone and Evapotrons
Associated with his Burning Man activities, Breed devised the Gray-B-Gon and the Evapotron evaporators for
graywater disposal, and through Bay Area workshops directed construction, by Burning Man campers, of over 100 units, as of 2012.[16][24][25]
Publications
— (August 1970). "The APL Plus File System". Proceedings of SHARE. Vol. 35. p. 392.
OCLC554296375.
^Philip S. Abrams (August 17, 1966).
"An interpreter for "Iverson notation""(PDF). Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Archived(PDF) from the original on September 30, 2015. Retrieved June 25, 2022.
^Larry Breed.
"How We Got To APL\1130". Vector. 22 (3). British APL Association.
Archived from the original on April 11, 2021. Retrieved June 25, 2022.
^
abcdSummer Burkes (August 11, 2015).
"How the Fence Began". The Burning Man Journal. Retrieved May 2, 2020. (see also the public comments at the end)