Theoretical Foundations of Programming Methodology: Lecture Notes of an International Summer School, Directed by F. L. Bauer, E. W. Dijkstra and C. A.

Book Overview

Long ago~ the welfare of a sooiety used to depend heavily on the skill and dedioation of its oraftsmen - the miller~ the blaok? smith~ the oobbler and the tailor. These oraftsmen aoquired their skill by a long and poorly paid apprentioeship to some master of their oraft. They learned by imitation and experienoe~ and by tri? al and error. They did not read books or study soienoe~ they knew nothing of the theory of their subjeot~ the geometry of their ru? dimentary drawings~ nor the mathematios underlying their primitive oaloulations. They oould not explain how or why they used their methods; yet they worked effeotively by themselves or in small teams to oomplete their tasks at a predioted oost~ to a fairly well predioted timesoale~ and usually to the satisfaotion of their olients. The programmer of today shares many of these attributes of a oraftsman. He learns his oraft by apprentioeship in an existing team of programmers - but his apprentiaeship is highZy paid and usually very short. He develops his skill by trial; but mostly by error. He does not study theory~ or even read books on Computer Soience. He knows nothing of the logical and mathematical founda? tions of his profession; and he hates to explain or justifY~ or even to dooument what he has done.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9027714622
• ISBN13: 9789027714626
• Release Date: July 1982
• Publisher: Springer
• Length: 672 Pages
• Weight: 2.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.1" x 9.2"