Re: [ossig] History Of Programming Languages ( was: History of Computer Science)

[Nur Hussein <nhussein@xxxxxxxxx>]

> Can you tell us more about the course that you took? Any web links to
> interesting info etc.?

The course itself was taught by one of the most brilliant lecturers I
have ever met [1]. Everything that was interesting was in the lecture
itself, but the book I linked to offers a lot of insight on
programming language design, so you might want to check that out.
 
> I also will like to recommend a book. This runs counter to the concept
> of programming languages. It touches on the idea of programming itself..
> strongly tied to mathematics/numerical methods. (phew! i definitely will
> not be able to complete the book in my lifetime!)
> http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.html

I don't agree that TAOCP runs "counter to the concept of progamming
languages". It's a (series of) book on algorithms, which is a
different thing. The examples are in MMIX, which isn't exactly
everyone's cup of tea though :). But it's an interesting approach to
exploring algorithms.

-= Nur Hussein =-

[1] Which is also part of the reason I get offended when people keep
claiming "university lecturers in Malaysia are no good". Like
everything, some are good, some are not, and I know there are
excellent lecturers out there, so sweeping generalisations doesn't do
justice to our educators.


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