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From: MorphemeAddict <lytlesw@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2020 10:34:52 -0500
Message-ID: <CAHiXx=N2PivEJYbqt7mKf7AYbB2y1A31=0Mfvx01CW2PzvYAVQ@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [lojban] Very belated report on the death of Jeff Prothero - a
 cofounder of Lojban
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I'm sorry to hear of Jeff Prothero's passing. I knew him only from Plan B,
so your post is most welcome.

stevo

On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 10:26 AM Bob LeChevalier <lojbab@lojban.org> wrote:

> I discovered when looking him up on the net, that Jeff Prothero passed
> away back in 2016, and I am pretty sure no one said anything at the time.
>
> Jeff Prothero, back when there was only one version of Loglan, was the
> first person AFAIK to come up with a complete formal YACC grammar and
> parser for TLI Loglan, back around 1980 while he was still a student at
> U of Washington.  Others had attempted to create a YACC grammar for
> Loglan starting back in 1976-1977 (notably, i think, Doug Landauer and
> Sheldon Linker), but Jeff was the one who figured out how to use YACC's
> error-correcting logic to achieve processing of the numerous elidable
> terminators in the language.  Scott Layson later took Jeff's work as the
> basis for the parser that became the official Loglan parser in 1982.
>
> When Nora and I first split off from Dr James Cooke Brown, the inventor
> of Loglan and his organization The Loglan Institute, Inc., and we
> started trying to devise Lojban, Jeff was the one who got me started
> working on an updated YACC grammar.  JCB attacked both of us as
> violating the alleged copyright of the Loglan grammar and trademark of
> Loglan as a name of the language, and Jeff joined with me in legally
> challenging JCB's claims.  The copyright claim went away when Jeff
> pointed out that his work on the YACC grammar was as a student employee
> of the University, and hence could not be "owned" by anyone else without
> university release (which was never sought).  Jeff contributed
> significantly to the hefty legal fees we incurred challenging the
> trademark.
>
> As part of all this, Jeff taught me what I could grasp of YACC
> grammar-writing, which eventually led to the official Lojban YACC
> grammar (Later contributors were Jeff Taylor, and of course John Cowan,
> who largely took over parser work from me in 1992-3, and produced the
> currently official YACC grammar in an appendix to CLL in 1997, an
> official parser derived from that grammar, and the E-BNF simplified
> version of the grammar which some people prefer.
>
> While there have been attempts to devise other parsers for Lojban,
> especially for online use, and also to try to formalize more of the
> language than the basic grammar, I don't think anything ever reached the
> state of "approval" by BPFK, which still had the authority to do so
> until recently.  So in a sense, Jeff Prothero legitimately can be
> described as the "father" of Lojban's formal grammar
>
> Jeff moved on to other pursuits besides Lojban after he moved away from
> Washington, as described in this Wikipedia article.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynbe_ru_Taren
>
> I kept occasional contact with him, but had not done so in the last few
> years after my health problems led me to reduce my Lojban activity.
>
> I first read of his death, while answering a discussion question, from
> that Wikipedia article, and realized that few Lojbanists today even knew
> of Jeff Prothero and his immense contribution to Lojban, without which
> it might not have even been started, much less achieved the wide
> recognition that it now has.
>
> This is an attempt to remedy that.
>
> lojbab
>
> Bob LeChevalier
> Founder
>
> --
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> .
>

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<div dir=3D"ltr"><div class=3D"gmail_default" style=3D"font-family:courier =
new,monospace">I&#39;m sorry to hear of Jeff Prothero&#39;s passing. I knew=
 him only from Plan B, so your post is most welcome.=C2=A0</div><div class=
=3D"gmail_default" style=3D"font-family:courier new,monospace"><br></div><d=
iv class=3D"gmail_default" style=3D"font-family:courier new,monospace">stev=
o</div></div><br><div class=3D"gmail_quote"><div dir=3D"ltr" class=3D"gmail=
_attr">On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 10:26 AM Bob LeChevalier &lt;<a href=3D"mail=
to:lojbab@lojban.org">lojbab@lojban.org</a>&gt; wrote:<br></div><blockquote=
 class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px so=
lid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">I discovered when looking him up on =
the net, that Jeff Prothero passed <br>
away back in 2016, and I am pretty sure no one said anything at the time.<b=
r>
<br>
Jeff Prothero, back when there was only one version of Loglan, was the <br>
first person AFAIK to come up with a complete formal YACC grammar and <br>
parser for TLI Loglan, back around 1980 while he was still a student at <br=
>
U of Washington.=C2=A0 Others had attempted to create a YACC grammar for <b=
r>
Loglan starting back in 1976-1977 (notably, i think, Doug Landauer and <br>
Sheldon Linker), but Jeff was the one who figured out how to use YACC&#39;s=
 <br>
error-correcting logic to achieve processing of the numerous elidable <br>
terminators in the language.=C2=A0 Scott Layson later took Jeff&#39;s work =
as the <br>
basis for the parser that became the official Loglan parser in 1982.<br>
<br>
When Nora and I first split off from Dr James Cooke Brown, the inventor <br=
>
of Loglan and his organization The Loglan Institute, Inc., and we <br>
started trying to devise Lojban, Jeff was the one who got me started <br>
working on an updated YACC grammar.=C2=A0 JCB attacked both of us as <br>
violating the alleged copyright of the Loglan grammar and trademark of <br>
Loglan as a name of the language, and Jeff joined with me in legally <br>
challenging JCB&#39;s claims.=C2=A0 The copyright claim went away when Jeff=
 <br>
pointed out that his work on the YACC grammar was as a student employee <br=
>
of the University, and hence could not be &quot;owned&quot; by anyone else =
without <br>
university release (which was never sought).=C2=A0 Jeff contributed <br>
significantly to the hefty legal fees we incurred challenging the <br>
trademark.<br>
<br>
As part of all this, Jeff taught me what I could grasp of YACC <br>
grammar-writing, which eventually led to the official Lojban YACC <br>
grammar (Later contributors were Jeff Taylor, and of course John Cowan, <br=
>
who largely took over parser work from me in 1992-3, and produced the <br>
currently official YACC grammar in an appendix to CLL in 1997, an <br>
official parser derived from that grammar, and the E-BNF simplified <br>
version of the grammar which some people prefer.<br>
<br>
While there have been attempts to devise other parsers for Lojban, <br>
especially for online use, and also to try to formalize more of the <br>
language than the basic grammar, I don&#39;t think anything ever reached th=
e <br>
state of &quot;approval&quot; by BPFK, which still had the authority to do =
so <br>
until recently.=C2=A0 So in a sense, Jeff Prothero legitimately can be <br>
described as the &quot;father&quot; of Lojban&#39;s formal grammar<br>
<br>
Jeff moved on to other pursuits besides Lojban after he moved away from <br=
>
Washington, as described in this Wikipedia article.<br>
<br>
<a href=3D"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynbe_ru_Taren" rel=3D"noreferrer"=
 target=3D"_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynbe_ru_Taren</a><br>
<br>
I kept occasional contact with him, but had not done so in the last few <br=
>
years after my health problems led me to reduce my Lojban activity.<br>
<br>
I first read of his death, while answering a discussion question, from <br>
that Wikipedia article, and realized that few Lojbanists today even knew <b=
r>
of Jeff Prothero and his immense contribution to Lojban, without which <br>
it might not have even been started, much less achieved the wide <br>
recognition that it now has.<br>
<br>
This is an attempt to remedy that.<br>
<br>
lojbab<br>
<br>
Bob LeChevalier<br>
Founder<br>
<br>
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f30f9-d319-4280-11f8-750b251a1753%40lojban.org</a>.<br>
</blockquote></div>

<p></p>

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