Formal Language Description Languages for Computer Programming — T.B. Steel Jr., 1966 | Early Computer Science & Programming Language Theory

Published in 1966, Formal Language Description Languages for Computer Programming collects the proceedings of the landmark IFIP Working Conference on Formal Language Description Languages, held in Vienna, Austria, September 15–18, 1964. The meeting brought together researchers working at a moment when computer scientists were attempting to move beyond simply inventing programming languages and toward mathematically rigorous ways of describing their syntax and meaning.

Edited by T. B. Steel Jr. and published by North-Holland, the 330-page volume contains work by a remarkable group of early computer scientists, including John McCarthy, Adriaan van Wijngaarden, Peter J. Landin, Corrado Böhm, Marcel-Paul Schützenberger, Seymour Ginsburg, Maurice Nivat, and others. McCarthy contributes “A Formal Description of a Subset of ALGOL,” while van Wijngaarden addresses recursive definitions of syntax and semantics and Landin contributes a formal description of ALGOL 60.

The volume documents an important stage in the development of formal grammars, programming-language semantics, compiler theory, ALGOL, context-free languages, pushdown automata, and metalanguages. The photographed section, Marcel-Paul Schützenberger’s “Classification of Chomsky Languages,” is particularly notable: Schützenberger was one of the major figures in formal-language theory, and the paper is independently recorded as appearing in this volume on pages 100–104.

Some of the work collected here continued to influence later programming-language research. Peter Landin’s contribution is still cited in histories of programming-language semantics, while the conference itself has been discussed in modern historical scholarship on the emergence of formal semantics during the 1960s.

Bibliographic details:
Editor: T. B. Steel Jr.
Title: Formal Language Description Languages for Computer Programming
Subtitle: Proceedings of the IFIP Working Conference on Formal Language Description Languages
Conference: Vienna, Austria, September 15–18, 1964
Publisher: North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam
Publication year: 1966
Pages: 330 

Condition:
Vintage ex-library hardcover in good used condition. Tan cloth boards show age-related discoloration, light spotting and minor handling wear. Former library label remains on the lower spine, with additional institutional markings likely present internally. Spine lettering is considerably faded. Binding and interior appear intact, and pages shown are clean and well preserved. No dust jacket. See photographs for exact condition.