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Formalising Meaning: a History of Programming Language Semantics

Troy Astarte

Swansea University Author: Troy Astarte

Abstract

The emergence of high-level programming languages in the 1950s brought a series ofchallenges to the burgeoning computing community. Many of these centred aroundthe difficulty of determining precisely the meaning of programming languages. Thiswas a key issue for both those writing translators for lan...

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Published: Newcastle upon Tyne 2019
Online Access: http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/troy.astarte/res/pdf/TK_Astarte_Formalising_Meaning_2019.pdf
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa59379
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spelling v2 59379 2022-02-11 Formalising Meaning: a History of Programming Language Semantics e27e50656bd09f48772e6370ee7edae7 Troy Astarte Troy Astarte true false 2022-02-11 SCS The emergence of high-level programming languages in the 1950s brought a series ofchallenges to the burgeoning computing community. Many of these centred aroundthe difficulty of determining precisely the meaning of programming languages. Thiswas a key issue for both those writing translators for languages and those writingprograms in these languages. People in the computing and mathematics worldsattempted to address these challenges by creating a variety of ways to describe thesemantics of high-level languages (the issue of defining syntax was more quicklyresolved).The history of the development of formal semantic description techniques is explored, with a particular focus on two centres of research: the IBM Laboratory inVienna, and the Programming Research Group in Oxford. The stories of these twothreads of development create interesting contrasts and similarities and discussingthem—as well as the previous works that motivated them and the subsequent workinspired by them—can tell us much about programming languages and formal computing today, as well as the culture and context of computing in the 1960s and 1970s.This work takes both a historical and technical approach. Looking at historicaldevelopments, considering the people involved in research, their motivations, thesituations in which they worked, and how they interacted informs understanding oftheir technical outputs. Exploring the technical side, however, also helps uncoveradditional historical angles, such as interactions and influences both positive andnegative. Thesis Newcastle upon Tyne history of computing, history of computer science, programming languages, formal semantics 15 6 2019 2019-06-15 http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/troy.astarte/res/pdf/TK_Astarte_Formalising_Meaning_2019.pdf Available as full text from Newcastle University repository via http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/troy.astarte/res/pdf/TK_Astarte_Formalising_Meaning_2019.pdf COLLEGE NANME Computer Science COLLEGE CODE SCS Swansea University EPSRC 2023-12-14T11:51:59.4025524 2022-02-11T09:48:53.6158156 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Mathematics and Computer Science - Computer Science Troy Astarte 1 59379__29266__907443ee589b405bb6cbe0238d5459aa.pdf AstartePhD.pdf 2023-12-13T15:59:41.7233733 Output 54787748 application/pdf E-Thesis – open access true false
title Formalising Meaning: a History of Programming Language Semantics
spellingShingle Formalising Meaning: a History of Programming Language Semantics
Troy Astarte
title_short Formalising Meaning: a History of Programming Language Semantics
title_full Formalising Meaning: a History of Programming Language Semantics
title_fullStr Formalising Meaning: a History of Programming Language Semantics
title_full_unstemmed Formalising Meaning: a History of Programming Language Semantics
title_sort Formalising Meaning: a History of Programming Language Semantics
author_id_str_mv e27e50656bd09f48772e6370ee7edae7
author_id_fullname_str_mv e27e50656bd09f48772e6370ee7edae7_***_Troy Astarte
author Troy Astarte
author2 Troy Astarte
format Staff Thesis
publishDate 2019
institution Swansea University
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Mathematics and Computer Science - Computer Science{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Mathematics and Computer Science - Computer Science
url http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/troy.astarte/res/pdf/TK_Astarte_Formalising_Meaning_2019.pdf
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description The emergence of high-level programming languages in the 1950s brought a series ofchallenges to the burgeoning computing community. Many of these centred aroundthe difficulty of determining precisely the meaning of programming languages. Thiswas a key issue for both those writing translators for languages and those writingprograms in these languages. People in the computing and mathematics worldsattempted to address these challenges by creating a variety of ways to describe thesemantics of high-level languages (the issue of defining syntax was more quicklyresolved).The history of the development of formal semantic description techniques is explored, with a particular focus on two centres of research: the IBM Laboratory inVienna, and the Programming Research Group in Oxford. The stories of these twothreads of development create interesting contrasts and similarities and discussingthem—as well as the previous works that motivated them and the subsequent workinspired by them—can tell us much about programming languages and formal computing today, as well as the culture and context of computing in the 1960s and 1970s.This work takes both a historical and technical approach. Looking at historicaldevelopments, considering the people involved in research, their motivations, thesituations in which they worked, and how they interacted informs understanding oftheir technical outputs. Exploring the technical side, however, also helps uncoveradditional historical angles, such as interactions and influences both positive andnegative.
published_date 2019-06-15T11:52:00Z
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score 11.016392

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