Early History of Programming Languages by Donald Knuth

The First International Research Conference on the History of Computing was a milestone in the history of computing, drawing a global elite of computer pioneers from the first generation of electronic digital computing. Most talks are approximately 45 minutes in duration and feature a lecture with a brief question and answer period afterwards.

In this brief talk, chronicler and historian of programming Donald Knuth gives a talk (unfortunately somewhat truncated on this recording) about the first decade of high-level programming languages up to 1957. The TPK algorithm is noted here, a simple program introduced by Knuth and his colleague Luis Trabb Pardo to illustrate the evolution of programming languages. The idea behind TPK is to take one algorithm and write it in every language in order to understand the ‘flavor’ of each language, including the choices its designers have made in its creation.

This lecture’s transcript was included in the edited volume from the conference, viz. Knuth, Donald, E., and Trabb-Pardo, Luis, “The Early Development of Programming Languages,” in Metropolis, N., and Howlett, J., Rota, Gian-Carlo, A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century, New York: Academic Press, 1980, pp. 197 – 273.

Catalog Number: 102695478