computer science

Richard Lary

Richard Lary is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Richard Lary rather than just read about it. In short: Richard F. "Richie" Lary (born 1948, Brooklyn, New York) is the RL of the PDP-8 RL Monitor System, which subsequently became MS/8. Years later, while working for Digital Equipment Corporation, he was also involved with other DEC hardware and software, including "principal architect for OS/8" and "working on the VAX architecture." Biography He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1965, along with Steve Rothman; t…

Key takeaways

Richard Lary belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Richard Lary to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Richard Lary from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Richard F. "Richie" Lary (born 1948, Brooklyn, New York) is the RL of the PDP-8 RL Monitor System, which subsequently became MS/8. Years later, while working for Digital Equipment Corporation, he was also involved with other DEC hardware and software, including "principal architect for OS/8" and "working on the VAX architecture."

Biography He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1965, along with Steve Rothman; they both were on the school's Math Team and "later wound up working on the VAX architecture." They were $2/hour summertime Fortran programmers in 1965, using an IBM 1130. Lary left DEC in 2000, forming a company he and his wife Ellen Lary, also a former DEC employee, named TuteLary.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard Lary

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard Lary claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Richard Lary before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Richard Lary ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Richard Lary

In research: Richard Lary appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Richard Lary in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Richard Lary is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1948 births, 20th-century American businesspeople, American business biography, 1940s birth stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard Lary outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Richard Lary in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Richard Lary means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Richard Lary out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard Lary in simple terms?

Why does Richard Lary matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Richard Lary?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Richard Lary.