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Category Archives: Software history
Algol 68: Informal Introduction and more
Several years ago I began an archival collection for the Algol family of programming languages: Algol 58 (originally known as the International Algorithmic Language), Algol 60, and Algol 68. I began looking for implementations of Algol 58 and Algol 60. … Continue reading
Posted in ALGOL, Books, Repositories, Software history
2 Comments
50th Anniversary of LISP 1.5 Programmer’s Manual
I just noticed that August 17 was the 50th anniversary of the LISP 1.5 Programmer’s Manual by John McCarthy, Paul W. Abrahams, Daniel J. Edwards, Timothy P. Hart, and Michael I. Levin. On that day in 1962 it was published … Continue reading
Posted in Books, LISP, Simulators, Software history
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Remembering Jim Gray
Jim Gray’s professional contributions to the theory and practice of transactions, databases, and scientific applications of large databases, coupled with his teaching, mentoring, and warm friendships made a tremendous impact on the world. When he failed to return from sailing … Continue reading
Posted in General, Software history
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The First International LISP Conference (1963)
If you thought the 1980 LISP Conference was the first Lisp conference, you were wrong. The 1980 conference was organized by Ruth E. Davis and John R. Allen and was held at Stanford University, with sponsorship by Stanford, Santa Clara … Continue reading
Posted in LISP, Software history
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More ALGOL history papers
As the ALGOL programming language enters its sixth decade, its interest to historians seems to be increasing. I’ve recently added additional citations to the “Papers on the history of ALGOL” section of the History of ALGOL web site: Edgar G. … Continue reading
Posted in FORTRAN, Software history
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Edgar Daylight on Dijkstra
The latest addition to the “Papers on the history of ALGOL” section of the History of ALGOL web site is this paper about Dijkstra’s involvement in proposing and implementing the recursive procedure as an ALGOL 60 language construct: Edgar G. … Continue reading
Posted in ALGOL, Software history
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LISP historical archive web site reorganized
The History of LISP web site launched back in 2005 as a single web page running some 40 pages when printed; it covered many of the best known Lisp implementations. Over the years, the web site approximately doubled in size, … Continue reading
Posted in LISP, Software history
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Robert L. Patrick on eMuseums
Bob Patrick is a friend of mine who entered the computer field in 1951, and whose hands-on experience running programs on an IBM 701 led him to conceive of the architecture for the General Motors/North American Monitor for the IBM … Continue reading
Posted in General, Oral history, Software history
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Herbert Stoyan’s Lisp collection at CHM
Last winter Herbert Stoyan very generously donated to the Computer History Museum the extensive collection of Lisp and AI materials he assembled in the course of his extensive study of Lisp and its history: manuals, technical reports, papers, books, listings, … Continue reading
Posted in LISP, Repositories, Software history
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Whetstone ALGOL
Part of my motivation for starting on an ALGOL project was that Brian Randell recently obtained permission from the copyright holder to post an online copy of ALGOL 60 Implementation at CHM. This book, which he and Lawford Russell published … Continue reading
Posted in ALGOL, Simulators, Software history
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ALGOL
I recently created an ALGOL section at the Computer History Museum‘s Software Preservation Group web site, covering the language standardization efforts — for ALGOL 58 (also known as the International Algebraic Language), ALGOL 60, and ALGOL 68 — and also … Continue reading
Posted in ALGOL, Software history
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Don Chamberlin and the origin of SQL
Tonight Don Chamberlin will receive a 2009 Fellow Award of the Computer History Museum “for his fundamental work on structured query language (SQL) and database architectures”. The other awardees for 2009 are Robert R. Everett (M.I.T. Whirlwind and SAGE) and … Continue reading
Posted in General, Oral history, Software history
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Bob Taylor recognized by The University of Texas
Last month, Bob Taylor (the subject of a recent oral history) was recognized by The University of Texas. Bob received the Graduate School Outstanding Alumnus Award, a $100,000 Presidential Endowed Fellowship was established in his name, and he gave the … Continue reading
Posted in Oral history, Software history
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Oral history of Robert W. Taylor
Robert W. Taylor directed external research at NASA, where he funded early work by Douglas Engelbart, and at the ARPA IPTO, where he initiated the ARPANET project. He also founded the Xerox PARC Computer Science Laboratory and later the DEC … Continue reading
Posted in General, Oral history, Software history
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ACM Classic Books Series
Last summer, ACM posted PDF versions of some books in its Classic Books Series, which resulted from a poll of ACM members initiated by David Patterson, who was then ACM President. The books are accessible to anyone who creates a … Continue reading
Posted in Software history
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The Revised MacLisp Manual goes online
MIT’s MacLisp played a key role in Lisp history, but its documentation often lagged the system as developers concentrated on adding features and improving performance. Around the time that Lisp machine development eclipsed PDP-10 MacLisp, this final MacLisp document was … Continue reading
Posted in LISP, Software history
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BBC Radio observes Fortran’s 50th birthday
This week’s episode of BBC Radio’s Digital Planet show includes a short segment on the 50th anniversary of Fortran. The presenter, Gareth Mitchell, interviewed me last week and about 4 minutes of that interview are included. If you’re interested, the … Continue reading
Posted in FORTRAN, Software history
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C++ Historical Sources Archive
Observant audience members at Bjarne Stroustrup’s HOPL-III C++ talk this past weekend may have noticed on the last slide a mention of the C++ Historical Sources Archive at the Computer History Museum. This is a project Bjarne and I have … Continue reading
Posted in General, Repositories, Software history
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Remembering John Backus
As an undergraduate at the University of California at Berkeley in the late 1960s, I first learned of John Backus and his work on Fortran, BNF, and Algol. Around 1972 or 1973 I attended a talk John gave on “variable-free … Continue reading
Posted in FORTRAN, General, Software history
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