Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Mike McMahon (computer scientist)


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete.  Sandstein  15:54, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

Mike McMahon (computer scientist)

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The coverage (references, external links, etc.) does not seem sufficient to justify this article passing General notability guideline and the more detailed Notability (biographies) requirement. WP:BEFORE did not reveal any significant coverage on Gnews, Gbooks or Gscholar. Previously prodded by User:H.dryad. Deprodded by User:Joswig with "McMahon was one of the founders of Symbolics and worked there in the 80s. He contributed to a lot of ground-breaking software, like one of the first object-oriented window systems". Unfortunately, the sources added since are WP:PRIMARY, his Google Scholar count is very low, and I can't find even a paragraph summarizing his life or significance. A search for "Mike McMahon"+"window systeams" produces 70 google hits, very niche, and nothing that seems to collaborate the assertion given. An aside - the article is written in the past tense, suggesting the subject is deceased, but no dates of birth or death are given. If this person is important, we need sources to prove that, and those don't seem to exist, unfortunately - or at least I can't find them. (Few mentions in passing like "The NWS was designed and implemented primarily by Howard Cannon and Mike McMahon during 1980." from are not sufficient, whatever NWS is; the linked disambig doesn't even contain a reference to the New Window System described in the article, and we don't have an article about it). Sadly, this seems to be beyond the case of "a footnote in the history of computer sciences" - the footnotes about the subject have not been written yet... By all means, please prove me wrong and rescue this, keeping in mind NBIO and RS policies, of course. Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 14:12, 13 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Computing-related deletion discussions. Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here  14:12, 13 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of United States of America-related deletion discussions. Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here  14:12, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

 Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
 * Comments - this is a common name, so may I please have a few days to research this one? Bearian (talk) 00:45, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Barkeep49 (talk) 02:00, 22 October 2020 (UTC)
 * relisted. Hopefully 12 days would be an adequate enough time for some research. Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 02:02, 22 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Academics and educators-related deletion discussions. XOR&#39;easter (talk) 17:22, 22 October 2020 (UTC)


 * Comment Possibly there's an WP:NCREATIVE case?  He's the main author of several pieces of notable software:  EINE/ZWEI, Columbia MM, likely others.  It is difficult to locate sources, due both to the common name and age of the work. Russ Woodroofe (talk) 14:52, 23 October 2020 (UTC)
 * No, my Spectrum Internet was down for two days. Bearian (talk) 16:44, 23 October 2020 (UTC)


 * Delete. The sibject is not an academic so the relevant guidelines here are WP:GNG and WP:BIO. The sources given in the article are either authored by the subject or provide brief (in fact, as far as I can tell, in all cases, just single-sentence) mentions of him. The available coverage falls far far short of satisfying either WP:GNG or WP:BIO. Nsk92 (talk)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.