Wilf Hey earned two degrees in Canada: a BA in Science/Philosophy and a Mus,Bach. He achieved a prize from the American Mathematical Association, and went into computer programming right at the start of his career. He figured in the development of RPG — "decision tree sorter" that graduated into a high level language, and has been closely linked with early development of barcodes and computerised voices. He has been responsible for design of utilities and support of language compilers for a large international computer manufacturer. In the 80s he moved into computer journalism and has written "Wilf’s Workshop" for PC Plus ever since. He has specialised in programming issues and software security. For its first decade he was Deputy Editor and principal writer for SC magazine, and has been senior writer/analyst with Computerwire. He also writes regularly for Vision, an international magazine of religion and philosophy. He and his wife of 38 years currently work as principal staff for a family of three cats in Bath.

For more of Wilf’s columns see The Mathematical Digressions Archive