Christopher Strachey

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Christopher Strachey (born November 16, 1916 in Hampstead , England , † May 18, 1975 in Oxford , England) was a British computer scientist . He was one of the founders of denotational semantics and a pioneer in the design of programming languages . The Strachey family has famous members in politics, the arts, administration, and science.

Life

Christopher Strachey was born in Hampstead on November 16, 1916 to Oliver Strachey and Rachel (Ray) Costelloe. Oliver Strachey was the son of Richard Strachey and great-grandson of Sir Henry Strachey, 1st Baronet . In 1919 the family moved to Gordon Square . The Stracheys were part of the Bloomsbury Group , which also included Virginia Woolf , John Maynard Keynes, and Christopher's uncle Lytton Strachey . At age 13, Christopher entered Gresham's School in Holt , where he stood out for his intelligent performance but was generally a mediocre student. In 1935 he was admitted to King's College at the University of Cambridge , but where he continued to neglect his studies. Strachey first studied mathematics and then switched to physics. Towards the end of his third year at Cambridge, Strachey suffered a nervous breakdown, possibly related to coping with his homosexuality. He returned to Cambridge but got a mediocre degree in science.

Since he was unable to continue his education, Christopher took a position as a physicist at Standard Telephone & Cables Ltd (STC) . His first assignment was to develop a mathematical analysis for the design of electron tubes for use in radar . The complexity of the calculations required the use of a differential analyzer . This first experience with a calculating machine piqued Strachey's interest, and he began researching it. An application for a research position at Cambridge was rejected and Strachey continued to work for STC throughout World War II . After the war, a long-cherished dream came true for him: he became a teacher at St Edmund's School in Canterbury , where he taught mathematics and physics. Three years later, in 1949, he was able to transfer to the more prestigious Harrow School , where he stayed for three years.

In January 1951, a friend introduced it to Mike Woodger of the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). The laboratory had successfully built a scaled-down version of Turing's Automatic Computing Engine (ACE), the Pilot ACE , the concept of which dates back to 1945. In his spare time, Strachey developed a program for checkers , which he completed in February 1951. The game consumed all of the main memory of the Pilot ACE and first ran on July 30, 1951 on the NPL. When Strachey heard of the Manchester Mark 1 , which had a much larger main memory, he asked his former fellow student Alan Turing for the manual and in October 1951 rewrote the program in the machine language of this computer. He also wrote one of the first computer music programs; it was playing a nursery rhyme ( Baa Baa Black Sheep .)

Strachey worked for the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) from 1952 to 1959 . While working on the Saint Lawrence Seaway , he was able to visit various data centers in the United States and catalog their instruction sets . He later wrote programs for the Elliott 401 and the Ferranti Pegasus . He also worked on the analysis of vibrations in airplanes, working briefly with Roger Penrose . He also developed the concept of time sharing .

In 1959, Strachey left NRDC and became a freelance consultant. He has worked for the NRDC, EMI , Ferranti and other organizations on a wide variety of projects. This included logic design for computers and later also the design of high-level programming languages . As part of a contract to produce an Autocode for the Ferranti Orion , Strachey hired Peter Landin , who remained his only assistant for the duration of his consultancy.

In 1962 he accepted a position at Cambridge University, but also remained a freelance consultant. In 1965 he then accepted a position at Oxford University as the first director of the Programming Research Group . There he worked with Dana Scott .

plant

Strachey designed the Combined Programming Language (CPL) and was the first to point out the difference between the L-value and R-value of variables in programming. He also coined the term currying ; the concept behind it goes back to Haskell Brooks Curry .

He played a crucial role in the development of the Ferranti PEGASUS computer.

The macro - programming m4 (programming language) draws its concepts from the GPM , who in his work "A General Purpose Macro Generator" Computer Journal 8.3 (1965), pp. 225-241. GPM is one of the oldest macro processors .

literature

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ M. Campbell-Kelly: Christopher Strachey, 1916-1975: A Biographical Note . In: IEEE Annals of the History of Computing . 7, No. 1, January 1985, p. 21.
  2. ↑ Jonathan Fildes: 'Oldest' computer music unveiled , BBC News. June 17, 2008. Retrieved June 18, 2008. 
personal data
SURNAME Strachey, Christopher
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British computer scientist
DATE OF BIRTH November 16, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Hampstead , England
DATE OF DEATH May 18, 1975
Place of death Oxford , England