View source for Bill Schelter

{{Short description|American mathematician and programmer}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{primary sources|date=December 2015}}

{{Infobox person
|name        = Bill Schelter
|image       = 
|image_size  = 
|caption     = 
|birth_date  = {{birth year|1947}}
|birth_place = 
|death_date  = {{death date and age|2001|7|30|1947}}
|death_place = 
|other_names = 
|alma_mater  = [[McGill University]]
|education   = [[Mathematics]] ([[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]])
|known_for   = [[Austin Kyoto Common Lisp]], [[GNU Common Lisp]], [[GNU C compiler]], [[Maxima (software)|Maxima]]
|employer    = [[University of Texas at Austin|The University of Texas at Austin]]
|occupation  = [[Computer scientist]], [[Mathematics|Mathematics Professor]]
|awards      = 
|nationality  = American
}}

'''William Frederick Schelter''' (1947<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160612195350/http://www.utexas.edu/faculty/council/2004-2005/memorials/schelter/schelter.html In memoriam]. Access in 2007-07-05.</ref> – July 30, 2001) was a professor of [[mathematics]] at [[University of Texas at Austin|The University of Texas at Austin]] and a [[Lisp programming language|Lisp]] [[software developer|developer]] and [[programmer]].  Schelter is credited with the development of the [[GNU Common Lisp]] (GCL) implementation of [[Common Lisp]] and the [[GPL]]'d version of the [[computer algebra system]] [[Macsyma]] called [[Maxima (software)|Maxima]]. Schelter authored [[Austin Kyoto Common Lisp]] (AKCL) under contract with [[IBM]]. AKCL formed the foundation for [[Axiom (computer algebra system)|Axiom]], another computer algebra system. AKCL eventually became GNU Common Lisp. He is also credited with the first port of the [[GNU C compiler]] to the [[IA-32|Intel 386]] architecture, used in the original implementation of the [[Linux kernel]].<ref>[http://alamos.math.arizona.edu/symcomp/announcement.txt ] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060901072418/http://alamos.math.arizona.edu/symcomp/announcement.txt |date=September 1, 2006 }}</ref>

Schelter obtained his [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] at [[McGill University]] in 1972. His mathematical specialties were [[noncommutative ring]] theory and [[symbolic computation|computational algebra]] and its applications, including [[automated theorem proving]] in geometry.

In the summer of 2001, age 54, he died suddenly of a [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]] while traveling in [[Russia]].

==References==

* S. Chou and W. Schelter. ''Proving Geometry Theorems with Rewrite Rules'' Journal of Automated Reasoning, 1986.

{{Reflist}}

== External links ==

* {{MathGenealogy|id=13017}}
* [https://maxima.sourceforge.net/ Maxima homepage. Maxima is now available under GPL].

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schelter, Bill}}
[[Category:1947 births]]
[[Category:2001 deaths]]
[[Category:Lisp (programming language) people]]
[[Category:20th-century American mathematicians]]
[[Category:American computer programmers]]
[[Category:University of Texas at Austin faculty]]
[[Category:McGill University Faculty of Science alumni]]

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