A Purdue University Course in the History of Computing
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1 Oral History Interview with Brian Randell January 7, 2021 Via Zoom
Oral History Interview with Brian Randell January 7, 2021 Via Zoom Conducted by William Aspray Charles Babbage Institute 1 Abstract Brian Randell tells about his upbringing and his work at English Electric, IBM, and Newcastle University. The primary topic of the interview is his work in the history of computing. He discusses his discovery of the Irish computer pioneer Percy Ludgate, the preparation of his edited volume The Origins of Digital Computers, various lectures he has given on the history of computing, his PhD supervision of Martin Campbell-Kelly, the Computer History Museum, his contribution to the second edition of A Computer Perspective, and his involvement in making public the World War 2 Bletchley Park Colossus code- breaking machines, among other topics. This interview is part of a series of interviews on the early history of the history of computing. Keywords: English Electric, IBM, Newcastle University, Bletchley Park, Martin Campbell-Kelly, Computer History Museum, Jim Horning, Gwen Bell, Gordon Bell, Enigma machine, Curta (calculating device), Charles and Ray Eames, I. Bernard Cohen, Charles Babbage, Percy Ludgate. 2 Aspray: This is an interview on the 7th of January 2021 with Brian Randell. The interviewer is William Aspray. We’re doing this interview via Zoom. Brian, could you briefly talk about when and where you were born, a little bit about your growing up and your interests during that time, all the way through your formal education? Randell: Ok. I was born in 1936 in Cardiff, Wales. Went to school, high school, there. In retrospect, one of the things I missed out then was learning or being taught Welsh. -
Early Stored Program Computers
Stored Program Computers Thomas J. Bergin Computing History Museum American University 7/9/2012 1 Early Thoughts about Stored Programming • January 1944 Moore School team thinks of better ways to do things; leverages delay line memories from War research • September 1944 John von Neumann visits project – Goldstine’s meeting at Aberdeen Train Station • October 1944 Army extends the ENIAC contract research on EDVAC stored-program concept • Spring 1945 ENIAC working well • June 1945 First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC 7/9/2012 2 First Draft Report (June 1945) • John von Neumann prepares (?) a report on the EDVAC which identifies how the machine could be programmed (unfinished very rough draft) – academic: publish for the good of science – engineers: patents, patents, patents • von Neumann never repudiates the myth that he wrote it; most members of the ENIAC team contribute ideas; Goldstine note about “bashing” summer7/9/2012 letters together 3 • 1.0 Definitions – The considerations which follow deal with the structure of a very high speed automatic digital computing system, and in particular with its logical control…. – The instructions which govern this operation must be given to the device in absolutely exhaustive detail. They include all numerical information which is required to solve the problem…. – Once these instructions are given to the device, it must be be able to carry them out completely and without any need for further intelligent human intervention…. • 2.0 Main Subdivision of the System – First: since the device is a computor, it will have to perform the elementary operations of arithmetics…. – Second: the logical control of the device is the proper sequencing of its operations (by…a control organ. -
The Roots of Software Engineering*
THE ROOTS OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING* Michael S. Mahoney Princeton University (CWI Quarterly 3,4(1990), 325-334) At the International Conference on the History of Computing held in Los Alamos in 1976, R.W. Hamming placed his proposed agenda in the title of his paper: "We Would Know What They Thought When They Did It."1 He pleaded for a history of computing that pursued the contextual development of ideas, rather than merely listing names, dates, and places of "firsts". Moreover, he exhorted historians to go beyond the documents to "informed speculation" about the results of undocumented practice. What people actually did and what they thought they were doing may well not be accurately reflected in what they wrote and what they said they were thinking. His own experience had taught him that. Historians of science recognize in Hamming's point what they learned from Thomas Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions some time ago, namely that the practice of science and the literature of science do not necessarily coincide. Paradigms (or, if you prefer with Kuhn, disciplinary matrices) direct not so much what scientists say as what they do. Hence, to determine the paradigms of past science historians must watch scientists at work practicing their science. We have to reconstruct what they thought from the evidence of what they did, and that work of reconstruction in the history of science has often involved a certain amount of speculation informed by historians' own experience of science. That is all the more the case in the history of technology, where up to the present century the inventor and engineer have \*-as Derek Price once put it\*- "thought with their fingertips", leaving the record of their thinking in the artefacts they have designed rather than in texts they have written. -
TCM Report, Spring
Alan F. Shugart Contents BOARD OF DIRECTORS CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS Richard L. Sites Ronald G. Smart 1 John Willia m Poduska. Sr.. Chairman David Ahl. Mr. and Mrs. Rolland B. Arndt. Charles E. Sporck The Director's Letter Apollo Computer. Inc. Isaac L. Auerbach. Robert W. Bailey. Ph.D.. Ivan and Marcia Sutherland John Banning. Alan G. Bell. Gregory C .F. Del Thorndike and Steve Teicher Dr. G w e n Bell C. Gordon Bell Bettice. Alfred M. Bertocchi. Richard Billings. Erwin Tomash Encore Computer Corporation Allen H. Brady. Daniel S. Bricklin. Fred and Jean De Val pine 3 Dr. Gwen Bell Nancy Brooks. David A. Brown. Gordon S. Charles P Waite Howard Hathaway Aiken Brown, Lawrence C. Brown, Marshall D. Stephen L. Watson The Computer Museum Butler. Charles T. and Virginia G. Casale. Harvey W. Wiggins. Jr. The Life of a Computer Pioneer Danald Christiansen. Richard J. Clayton. William Wolfson Erich Bloch George Towne Clifford. Howard E. Cox. Jr .. G regory W. Welch National Science Foundation Henry J. Crouse. David N. Cutler. Joe Cychosz. 13 Harvey D. Cragon Gerald Davis and Francoise Szigetti. Clive B. CORPORATE MEMBERS University of Texas, Austin Dawson. F. de Bros, Bruce A. and Frances M. A Conversation Delagi. Jack Dennis. Nick de Wolf. L. John David Donaldson Doerr. James R. Donaldson. Philip H. Dorn. BENEfACTOR- SIO.OOO or more with the Hackers Ropes and Gray Gregory L. Duckworth, Ray Duncan, Thomas Apollo Computer. Inc: Eggers. Dan L. Eisner. Bob O. Evans. Robert Bank of America Foundation· 16 Robert Everett A. Farmer, Andrew D. Feit. Tse-yun Feng. -
The Essential Turing: Seminal Writings in Computing, Logic, Philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, and Artificial Life: Plus the Secrets of Enigma
The Essential Turing: Seminal Writings in Computing, Logic, Philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, and Artificial Life: Plus The Secrets of Enigma B. Jack Copeland, Editor OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS The Essential Turing Alan M. Turing The Essential Turing Seminal Writings in Computing, Logic, Philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, and Artificial Life plus The Secrets of Enigma Edited by B. Jack Copeland CLARENDON PRESS OXFORD Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Taipei Toronto Shanghai With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan South Korea Poland Portugal Singapore Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © In this volume the Estate of Alan Turing 2004 Supplementary Material © the several contributors 2004 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. -
Annual Report of the ACM Awards Committee for the Period July 1, 2005 - June 30, 2006
Annual Report of the ACM Awards Committee for the Period July 1, 2005 - June 30, 2006 1. BASIC INFORMATION 1.1 List of Committee Members and Terms of Office Calvin C. Gotlieb, Co-Chair 4/1/98-6/30/06 James Jay Horning, Co-Chair 7/02-6/30/06 Martin Abadi 8/04-12/31/06 Hal Abelson 12/03-12/31/09 Alfred V. Aho 2/01-12/31/05 David H. Bailey 12/31/08 Ruzena Bajcsy 1/04-12/31/07 Mary Gray Baker 11/04-12/31/07 Victor Basili 7/02-12/31/07 Michel Beaudouin-Lafon 8/04-12/31/07 Alan Berenbaum 12/03-12/31/05 Reinaldo Bergamaschi 12/31/09 Nina Bhatti Judith Bishop 6/03-12/31/06 Dines Bjørner 8/04-12/31/07 Ronald Boisvert 10/04-12/31/08 Stephen R. Bourne 12/31/10 Eric Brewer 3/05- John Seely Brown 1/01-12/31/07 E.G. Coffman 6/03-12/31/06 Patrick Cousot 9/04-12/31/07 Carlos de Lucena 2/01-12/31/05 James W. Demmel 12/31/09 Adel S. Elmaghraby 6/02-12/31/05 Joan Feigenbaum 5/01-12/31/05 Christian Freksa 7/05- Bernard Galler 2/01-12/31/05 Nicholas Georganas 12/03-12/31/07 Carlo Ghezzi 12/31/08 Adele Goldberg 12/31/09 Sandra Graham 3/05-12/31/06 James N. Gray 6/02-12/31/06 William D. Gropp 12/31/06 David Harel 1/05-12/31/09 Laura Hill 12/31/11 Charles H. -
Velma Elizabeth Roeth Huskey
Velma Elizabeth Roeth Huskey Born October 8, 1917, Houston, Ohio; died January 2, 1991, Santa Cruz, Calif.; wife and collaborator of Harry Huskey, who worked behind the scenes with her husband, coauthoring several papers with him; paper on “Lady Lovelace and Charles Babbage,” coauthored with her husband, appeared in Vol. 2, No. 4 of the Annals of the History of Computing and is widely regarded as one of the keystone papers recording the life and work of Ada, Lady Lovelace. Education: BA, English, Ohio State University, 1939. Professional Experience: information specialist, National Bureau of' Standards, 1948-1952. Honors and Awards: member, Phi Beta Kappa. In 1938 Velma was attending Ohio University where she was the “best student and beautiful girl who sat in the front row”1 of Harry Huskey's class in plane geometry. They were married on January 2, 1939, and moved to Columbus, Ohio, where they completed their education at Ohio State University (Velma graduated Phi Beta Kappa). With the start of World War II, they moved to Philadelphia where Harry taught Navy students and serendipitously became involved in the development of ENIAC. For the rest of her life she was directly or indirectly involved with computers, seeing them change from million dollar to $200 devices. After three years in Philadelphia, they spent a year in postwar England coping with the rationing system with their two girls, who were 3 and 5 years old. This was followed by a year in Washington, D.C., after which they moved to their beloved West, landing at the Institute for Numerical Analysis at UCLA in West Los Angeles. -
Wirth Transcript Final
A. M. Turing Award Oral History Interview with Niklaus Wirth by Elena Trichina ETH, Zürich, Switzerland March 13, 2018 Trichina: My name is Elena Trichina. It is my honor to interview Professor Niklaus Wirth for the Turing Award Winners Project of the Association for Computing Machinery, the ACM. The Turing Award, sometimes referred to as “the Nobel Prize of computing,” is given annually for major contributions of lasting importance in computing. Professor Wirth received his award in 1984 in recognition of his outstanding work in developing a sequence of programming languages – Euler, Algol-W, Pascal, Modula. The hallmarks of Wirth’s languages are their simplicity, economy of design, and high-level engineering. We will talk about it and many other things later today in the interview that takes place on the 13th of March, 2018, in the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. So we start. Ready? Guten Tag, Niklaus. Gruetzi. Wirth: Добрый ден, Елена Василевна Здравствуи [Good morning, Elena. Hello. – ed.] Trichina: Well, although your command of Russian is sufficient, my command of Swiss German is a little bit rudimentary. Shall we continue in one of the languages where we both feel comfortable? What would it be? French? English? Wirth: Oh, I think English is better for me. Yes, yes. Trichina: Okay. It’s probably better for the audience. [laughs] Wirth: Okay. True. Trichina: Okay. We continue in English. Here in front of me there is a list of the most important days in your life. You were born in February 1934 in Winterthur, which is a sort of middle-size industrial town in Switzerland. -
The 1968 NATO Software Engineering Conference
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING Report on a conference sponsored by the NATO SCIENCE COMMITTEE Garmisch, Germany, 7th to 11th October 1968 Chairman: Professor Dr. F. L. Bauer Co-chairmen: Professor L. Bolliet, Dr. H. J. Helms Editors: Peter Naur and Brian Randell January 1969 2 2 The present report is available from: Scientific Affairs Division NATO Brussels 39 Belgium Note for the current edition: The version of this report that you are reading was prepared by scan- ning the original edition, conversion to text through OCR, and then reformatting. Every effort has been made to do this as accurately as possible. However, it is almost certain that some errors have crept in despite best efforts. One of the problems was that the OCR software used kept trying to convert the original British spellings of words like ‘realise’ to the American spelling ‘realize’ and made other stupid mistakes. Whenever the OCR program was unsure of a reading, it called it to the attention of the operator, but there were a number of occasions in which it was sure, but wrong. Not all of these instances are guaranteed to have been caught. Although the editor tried to conform to the original presentation, certain changes were necessary, such as pagination. In order that the original Table of Contents and Indices would not have to be recalculated, an artifice was used. That is the original page breaks are indicated in the text thusly: 49 indicates that this is the point at which page 49 began in the original edition. If two such indicators appear together, this shows that there was a blank page in the original. -
History and Philosophy of Programming
AISB/IACAP World Congress 2012 Birmingham, UK, 2-6 July 2012 Symposium on the History and Philosophy of Programming Liesbeth De Mol and Giuseppe Primiero (Editors) Part of Published by The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour http://www.aisb.org.uk ISBN 978-1-908187-17-8 Foreword from the Congress Chairs For the Turing year 2012, AISB (The Society for the Study of Artificial Intel- ligence and Simulation of Behaviour) and IACAP (The International Associa- tion for Computing and Philosophy) merged their annual symposia/conferences to form the AISB/IACAP World Congress. The congress took place 2–6 July 2012 at the University of Birmingham, UK. The Congress was inspired by a desire to honour Alan Turing, and by the broad and deep significance of Turing’s work to AI, the philosophical ramifications of computing, and philosophy and computing more generally. The Congress was one of the events forming the Alan Turing Year. The Congress consisted mainly of a number of collocated Symposia on spe- cific research areas, together with six invited Plenary Talks. All papers other than the Plenaries were given within Symposia. This format is perfect for encouraging new dialogue and collaboration both within and between research areas. This volume forms the proceedings of one of the component symposia. We are most grateful to the organizers of the Symposium for their hard work in creating it, attracting papers, doing the necessary reviewing, defining an exciting programme for the symposium, and compiling this volume. We also thank them for their flexibility and patience concerning the complex matter of fitting all the symposia and other events into the Congress week. -
The Standard Model for Programming Languages: the Birth of A
1 The Standard Model for Programming Languages: 2 The Birth of a Mathematical Theory of 3 Computation 4 Simone Martini 5 Dipartimento di Informatica–Scienza e Ingegneria, Università di Bologna, Italy 6 INRIA, Sophia-Antipolis, Valbonne, France 7 http://www.cs.unibo.it/~martini 8 [email protected] 9 Abstract 10 Despite the insight of some of the pioneers (Turing, von Neumann, Curry, Böhm), programming 11 the early computers was a matter of fiddling with small architecture-dependent details. Only in 12 the sixties some form of “mathematical program development” will be in the agenda of some of the 13 most influential players of that time. A “Mathematical Theory of Computation” is the name chosen 14 by John McCarthy for his approach, which uses a class of recursively computable functions as an 15 (extensional) model of a class of programs. It is the beginning of that grand endeavour to present 16 programming as a mathematical activity, and reasoning on programs as a form of mathematical 17 logic. An important part of this process is the standard model of programming languages—the 18 informal assumption that the meaning of programs should be understood on an abstract machine 19 with unbounded resources, and with true arithmetic. We present some crucial moments of this story, 20 concluding with the emergence, in the seventies, of the need of more “intensional” semantics, like 21 the sequential algorithms on concrete data structures. 22 The paper is a small step of a larger project—reflecting and tracing the interaction between 23 mathematical logic and programming (languages), identifying some of the driving forces of this 24 process. -
The Computer As Von Neumann Planned It MD Godfrey* DF Hendry
The Computer as von Neumann Planned It M. D. Godfrey* D. F. Hendry** Address for correspondence: Michael D. Godfrey Durand Bldg. ISL Electrical Engineering Department Stanford University Stanford, CA, 94305 Published in: IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Vol.14 No.3 * Information Systems Laboratory, Electrical Engineering Department, Stanford University, Stanford, CA. ** T-H Engineering, Inc., Altadena, CA. 1 2 The Computer as von Neumann Planned It M. D. Godfrey D. F. Hendry ABSTRACT We describe the computer which was defined in von Neumann’s unpublished paper First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, June 30, 1945. Motivation for the architecture and design is discussed, and the machine is contrasted with the EDVAC which was actually constructed. Keywords: architecture, computer, EDVAC, stack, tagged-memory, von Neu- mann architecture. 1. Introduction John von Neumann made a key contribution to the understanding and development of computer architecture and design in his unpublished report titled First Draft Report on the EDVAC [1]. However, in reading work which refers to this report and to the EDVAC (the acronym is defined in [10] to be: Electronic Discrete VAriable Computer) computer which it described some perplexing observations emerge: 1. The constructed EDVAC is usually described as being based on the von Neumann report [1]. 2. The von Neumann report is often described as the collective work of the Moore School group, unfairly given the sole authorship of von Neumann (see, for exam- ple, page xv of [11]). This would suggest that many of the ideas in the report were shared by the Moore School design group and therefore would be expected to appear in the constructed machine.