Guy Davidson pays tribute to a highly respected member of the C++ Standards Committee.
Gor Nishanov will forever be known as the principal architect of coroutines in C++. His passing at the end of June will be keenly felt by all of us on the committee. Not only have we lost a great intellect from our midst, we have also lost a man of great enthusiasm, generosity, diligence and wit.
Besides coroutines, he was the co-author of the Musser-Nishanov sequence-matching algorithm, a very practical improvement on the well-known Boyer-Moore algorithm. His commitment to intellectual honesty was an example to many. During the development of the coroutines proposal, he spent considerable time, often late at night, helping other members of the committee with their proposals which argued against his own. This rare demonstration of integrity won the hearts of many.
He worked at Microsoft for many years; his most recent committee work was the proposal on concurrent queues, a proposal that has been under discussion for well over a decade. He jumped in to help things along because he could see it was an important piece of the standard library that needed completing.
On the committee mailing list, the outpouring of reminiscence and fondness for Gor has been considerable. Everyone has a surprising story to tell of his kindness, his love for life, as well as his passion for music and his love for the piano. He leaves behind his wife Anzhela and two daughters, Alisa and Anya. The family have asked that you consider donating blood or plasma, or contribute to esophageal cancer research.
