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Abstract

Styles of programming 1952-1972

In the field of History of Computing, the construction of the early computers has received much scholarly attention. However, these machines have not only been important because of their logical design and their engineering, but also because of the programming practices that emerged around these first machines. This article compares two styles of programming that developed around Dutch ‘first computers’. The first style is represented by Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (1930-2002), who would receive the Turing Award for his work in 1972. Dijkstra developed a mathematical style of programming – a program was something you should be able to design mathematically and prove it logically. The second style is represented by Willem Louis van der Poel (born 1926). For him, programming is ‘trickology’. A program is primarily a technical artefact that should work: a program is something you play with, comparable to the way one solves a puzzle.

Keywords: Programming, 20th century, Computers