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Anthony James Barr

Anthony James Barr
TonyBarr.jpg
Barr with statue of Benjamin Franklin on the Barr Systems campus in Gainesville, Florida
Born (1940-09-24) September 24, 1940 (age 76)
New York
Nationality American
Other names Tony Barr, Jim Barr
Alma mater North Carolina State University
Occupation Programming language Designer, Software Engineer, Inventor

Anthony James Barr (born September 24, 1940), aka Tony Barr or Jim Barr, is an American programming language designer, software engineer, and inventor. Among his notable contributions are the Statistical Analysis System (SAS), automated lumber yield optimization, and the Automated Classification of Medical Entities (ACME).

Widely used internationally in science, government, industry, and academia, the SAS System was founded by Barr in 1966. In September 1966, in Athens, Georgia, he presented the conceptual ideas of SAS to members of the Committee on Statistical Software of the University Statisticians of the Southern Experiment Stations (USSES).

Barr had earlier created an analysis-of-variance modeling language inspired by the notation of statistician Maurice Kendall. He developed it in assembly language on the IBM 1410, as a graduate student at North Carolina State University from 1962 to 1963. Dr. A. Grandage, author of IBM 650 analysis-of-variance programs, advised on some of the statistical computations. This was followed by a multiple regression program with a flexible input format and with algebraic transformation of variables, in 1963 to 1964. Drawing on those programs, along with his experience with structured data files, he created SAS, placing statistical procedures into a formatted file framework.

Barr's experience with structured data files was gained while working on the Formatted File System, (see below). From 1966 to 1968, Barr developed the fundamental structure and language of SAS.


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