Wikipedia:Tim Starling Day

Jimbo Wales proclaimed on October 31, 2003:


 * Dude, you rock.


 * I hereby decree, in my usual authoritarian and bossy manner, that today (Oct. 31) shall forever be known as Tim Starling Day. Wikipedians of the distant future will marvel at the day when the new parsing algorithm dawned upon us. Tonight at dinner, every Wikipedian should say a toast to Tim and his many inventions.


 * In countries that celebrate Halloween, children will first say "Trick or Treat" and then, when they get the candy, they will say "Secure and Split" and run away, in honor of Tim's work in this area.

This is associated with Starling rewriting the parser to be twice as fast – something that had been desperately needed for performance.

The Signpost discussed Tim Starling Day in 2005.