Joe Armstrong (programmer)

<h2 id="early-life-and-education">Early life and education</h2>
Armstrong was born in <a href="/facts/Bournemouth/1luGnWFx">Bournemouth</a>, England in 1950.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1">1</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2">2</a>
At 17, Armstrong began programming in <a href="/facts/Fortran/m1KqjcMU">Fortran</a> on his local council's <a href="/facts/Mainframe_computer/nrBR6rWa">mainframe</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3">3</a>
Armstrong graduated with a <a href="/facts/Bachelor_of_Science/9n3gvDf7">B.Sc.</a> in <a href="/facts/Physics/a7aH2y08">Physics</a> from <a href="/facts/University_College_London/7dmHhCf5">University College London</a> in 1972.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4">4</a>
He received a <a href="/facts/Doctor_of_Philosophy/paJumdN8">Ph.D.</a> in <a href="/facts/Computer_science/lN3pEyPz">Computer Science</a> from the <a href="/facts/KTH_Royal_Institute_of_Technology/VM9jmsXQ">Royal Institute of Technology</a> (KTH) in <a href="/facts/Stockholm/sD74W4Pm">Stockholm, Sweden</a> in 2003.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5">5</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6">6</a> His dissertation was titled Making reliable distributed systems in the presence of software errors.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7">7</a> He was a professor at <a href="/facts/KTH_Royal_Institute_of_Technology/VM9jmsXQ">KTH</a> from 2014 until his death.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8">8</a>

<h2 id="career">Career</h2>
After briefly working for <a href="/facts/Donald_Michie/qvesIVeK">Donald Michie</a> at the <a href="/facts/University_of_Edinburgh/L69HscH9">University of Edinburgh</a>, Armstrong moved to <a href="/facts/Sweden/u3qC7lyj">Sweden</a> in 1974 and joined the <a href="/facts/Ericsson/yJ4oMMp7">Ericsson Computer Science Laboratory</a> at <a href="/facts/Kista/EzWtXs3x">Kista</a> in 1984.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9">9</a>
Peter Seibel wrote:

<blockquote>Originally a physicist, he switched to computer science when he ran out of money in the middle of his physics PhD and landed a job as a researcher working for <a href="/facts/Donald_Michie/qvesIVeK">Donald Michie</a> — one of the founders of the field of artificial intelligence in Britain. At Michie's lab, Armstrong was exposed to the full range of AI goodies, becoming a founding member of the British Robotics Association and writing papers about robotic vision.
When funding for AI dried up as a result of the famous <a href="/facts/Lighthill_report/n5PcLQE1">Lighthill report</a>, it was back to physics-related programming for more than half a decade, first at the <a href="/facts/EISCAT/78E0U4qn">EISCAT</a> scientific association and later the <a href="/facts/Swedish_Space_Corporation/XS4Q2nId">Swedish Space Corporation</a>, before finally joining the Ericsson Computer Science Lab where he invented Erlang.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10">10</a></blockquote>
It was at <a href="/facts/Ericsson/yJ4oMMp7">Ericsson</a> in 1986, that he worked with Robert Virding and Mike Williams, to invent the <a href="/facts/Erlang_(programming_language)/2PuxmzT3">Erlang</a> programming language,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11">11</a> which was released as open source in 1998.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12">12</a>

<h2 id="personal-life">Personal life</h2>
Armstrong married Helen Taylor in 1977. They had two children, Thomas and Claire.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13">13</a>

<h2 id="death">Death</h2>
Armstrong died on 20 April 2019 from an infection which was complicated by <a href="/facts/Pulmonary_fibrosis/9RVcVylE">pulmonary fibrosis</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14">14</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15">15</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16">16</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:17" href="#fn:17">17</a>

<h2 id="publications">Publications</h2>
<ul><li>2007. Programming Erlang: Software for a Concurrent World. Pragmatic Bookshelf <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-1934356005.</li>
<li>2013. Programming Erlang: Software for a Concurrent World. Second edition. Pragmatic Bookshelf <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-1937785536.</li></ul>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>

Wikiquote has quotations related to Joe Armstrong.

<ul><li><a href="https://joearms.github.io/">Erlang and other stuff</a> - Joe Armstrong's current blog</li>
<li><a href="http://armstrongonsoftware.blogspot.com/">Armstrong on Software</a> - Joe Armstrong's old weblog</li>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150911032533/https://www.kth.se/profile/jlarm/">Joseph Leslie Armstrong</a> - Prof. Armstrong's home page at <a href="/facts/Royal_Institute_of_Technology/VM9jmsXQ">KTH</a></li>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150905052657/https://www.sics.se/%7ejoe/">Joe Armstrong</a> home page at the <a href="/facts/Swedish_Institute_of_Computer_Science/ulHGruNN">Swedish Institute of Computer Science</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1">Armstrong, Joe (29 April 2013). "Excerpts from Coders At Work: Joe Armstrong Interview". Living in an Ivory Basement (Interview). Interviewed by Seibel, Peter. Brown, C. Titus. Retrieved 23 December 2017. <a href="http://ivory.idyll.org/blog/coders-at-work-joe-armstrong.html" target="_blank">http://ivory.idyll.org/blog/coders-at-work-joe-armstrong.html</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:2">Däcker, Bjarne (8 May 2019). "Joe Armstrong obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 September 2021. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/08/joe-armstrong-obituary" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/08/joe-armstrong-obituary</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:3">Armstrong, Joe (29 April 2013). "Excerpts from Coders At Work: Joe Armstrong Interview". Living in an Ivory Basement (Interview). Interviewed by Seibel, Peter. Brown, C. Titus. Retrieved 23 December 2017. <a href="http://ivory.idyll.org/blog/coders-at-work-joe-armstrong.html" target="_blank">http://ivory.idyll.org/blog/coders-at-work-joe-armstrong.html</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:4">Däcker, Bjarne (8 May 2019). "Joe Armstrong obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 September 2021. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/08/joe-armstrong-obituary" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/08/joe-armstrong-obituary</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:5">Däcker, Bjarne (8 May 2019). "Joe Armstrong obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 September 2021. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/08/joe-armstrong-obituary" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/08/joe-armstrong-obituary</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:6">"Joe Armstrong: Father of Erlang". Erlang User Conference. Erlang Solutions Ltd. 2012. Retrieved 23 December 2017. <a href="http://www.erlang-factory.com/conference/ErlangUserConference2012/speakers/joearmstrong" target="_blank">http://www.erlang-factory.com/conference/ErlangUserConference2012/speakers/joearmstrong</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:7">Armstrong, Joe (December 2003). Making reliable distributed systems in the presence of software errors (PDF) (PhD). Stockholm: Royal Institute of Technology. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 December 2004. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20041204143417/http://www.sics.se/~joe/thesis/armstrong_thesis_2003.pdf" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20041204143417/http://www.sics.se/~joe/thesis/armstrong_thesis_2003.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:8">Däcker, Bjarne (8 May 2019). "Joe Armstrong obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 September 2021. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/08/joe-armstrong-obituary" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/08/joe-armstrong-obituary</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:9">Däcker, Bjarne (8 May 2019). "Joe Armstrong obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 September 2021. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/08/joe-armstrong-obituary" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/08/joe-armstrong-obituary</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:10">Seibel, Peter (2009). "Joe Armstrong". Coders at work. Retrieved 23 December 2017. <a href="http://www.codersatwork.com/joe-armstrong.html" target="_blank">http://www.codersatwork.com/joe-armstrong.html</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:11">Däcker, Bjarne (8 May 2019). "Joe Armstrong obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 September 2021. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/08/joe-armstrong-obituary" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/08/joe-armstrong-obituary</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:12">"Erlang/OTP Released as Open Source, 1998-12-08". Archived from the original on 9 October 1999. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19991009002753/http://www.erlang.se/onlinenews/ErlangOTPos.shtml" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/19991009002753/http://www.erlang.se/onlinenews/ErlangOTPos.shtml</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:13">Däcker, Bjarne (8 May 2019). "Joe Armstrong obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 September 2021. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/08/joe-armstrong-obituary" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/08/joe-armstrong-obituary</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:14">"Francesco Cesarini on Twitter". Twitter. 20 April 2019. Retrieved 20 April 2019. <a href="https://twitter.com/FrancescoC/status/1119596234166218754" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/FrancescoC/status/1119596234166218754</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:15">Wager, Kristjan (20 April 2019). "RIP Joe Armstong, the author of Erlang". Free Thought Blogs. Retrieved 21 April 2019. <a href="https://freethoughtblogs.com/kriswager/2019/04/20/rip-joe-armstrong-the-author-of-erlang/" target="_blank">https://freethoughtblogs.com/kriswager/2019/04/20/rip-joe-armstrong-the-author-of-erlang/</a> <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:16">作者： (21 April 2019). "Erlang之父Joe Armstrong去世". 新浪科技_新浪网 (in Chinese). Retrieved 21 April 2019. <a href="http://tech.sina.com.cn/csj/2019-04-21/doc-ihvhiewr7400471.shtml" target="_blank">http://tech.sina.com.cn/csj/2019-04-21/doc-ihvhiewr7400471.shtml</a> <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:17">"Helen Taylor on Twitter". Twitter. 21 April 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2019. <a href="https://twitter.com/mrsjoeerl/status/1119941783381774338" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/mrsjoeerl/status/1119941783381774338</a> <a href="#fnref:17" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
</ol>

Joe Armstrong (programmer) open-in-new

Joe Armstrong (programmer)