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The Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer
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The Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer
The Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer (sometimes called WWG, after its authors' initials) was the first book on computer programming. Published in 1951, it was written by Maurice Wilkes, David Wheeler, and Stanley Gill of Cambridge University. The book was based on the authors' experiences constructing and using EDSAC, one of the first practical computers in the world.
It was the first book to describe a number of important concepts in programming, including:
Much of the book is dedicated to explaining the library. This consisted of eighty-eight subroutines implementing mathematical operations like the calculation of trigonometric functions and arithmetic operations on complex numbers. The library was a physical collection stored in a filing cabinet containing punched paper tape encoding the subroutines. This included a "library catalog" describing how a programmer could use each subroutine; today this is called API documentation.
This chapter extensively investigates "proofreading" and location of the mistakes in the programs. It also advises against frequent refactoring as it introduces more mistakes as programmer tries to improve the program.
Includes examples of calculations of e-sinx formula and definite integral, integration of ordinary differential equations, and evaluation of the Fourier transform by using EDSAC programs.
discusses an assembling (compiling) and interpretation of a program, it also discusses motivation behind "floating addresses" which are, in modern terms, variable references (akin to C++ variable references) which are replaced by compiler by a real memory addresses on the fly every time the subroutine is invoked.
This part contains mostly specification on the EDSAC's standard library's subroutines. Among included are subroutines for floating-point, complex numbers, debugging, exponential calculations, integration, differential arithmetic equations, logarithms, quadrature, and trigonometric subroutines.
The 1951 book was a mass-printed version of a report titled Report on the Preparation of Programmes for the EDSAC and the Use of the Library of Subroutines written in September 1950 for private circulation and distributed to no more than 100 people. Though written in England, the book was published by Addison-Wesley in the United States.
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The Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer
The Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer (sometimes called WWG, after its authors' initials) was the first book on computer programming. Published in 1951, it was written by Maurice Wilkes, David Wheeler, and Stanley Gill of Cambridge University. The book was based on the authors' experiences constructing and using EDSAC, one of the first practical computers in the world.
It was the first book to describe a number of important concepts in programming, including:
Much of the book is dedicated to explaining the library. This consisted of eighty-eight subroutines implementing mathematical operations like the calculation of trigonometric functions and arithmetic operations on complex numbers. The library was a physical collection stored in a filing cabinet containing punched paper tape encoding the subroutines. This included a "library catalog" describing how a programmer could use each subroutine; today this is called API documentation.
This chapter extensively investigates "proofreading" and location of the mistakes in the programs. It also advises against frequent refactoring as it introduces more mistakes as programmer tries to improve the program.
Includes examples of calculations of e-sinx formula and definite integral, integration of ordinary differential equations, and evaluation of the Fourier transform by using EDSAC programs.
discusses an assembling (compiling) and interpretation of a program, it also discusses motivation behind "floating addresses" which are, in modern terms, variable references (akin to C++ variable references) which are replaced by compiler by a real memory addresses on the fly every time the subroutine is invoked.
This part contains mostly specification on the EDSAC's standard library's subroutines. Among included are subroutines for floating-point, complex numbers, debugging, exponential calculations, integration, differential arithmetic equations, logarithms, quadrature, and trigonometric subroutines.
The 1951 book was a mass-printed version of a report titled Report on the Preparation of Programmes for the EDSAC and the Use of the Library of Subroutines written in September 1950 for private circulation and distributed to no more than 100 people. Though written in England, the book was published by Addison-Wesley in the United States.