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Algorithmics

Nicolas Wu Richard S. Bird Jeremy Gibbons Ralf Hinze Peter Hoefner Johan Jeuring Lambert G. L. T. Meertens Bernhard Moeller Carroll Morgan Tom Schrijvers Wouter Swierstra

Abstract

Algorithmics is the study and practice of taking a high-level description of a program’s purpose and, from it, producing an executable program of acceptable efficiency. Each step in that process is justified by rigorous, careful reasoning at the moment it is taken; and the repertoire of steps allowed by that rigour, at each stage, guides the development of the algorithm itself. IFIP’s Working Group 2.1 has always been concerned with Algorithmics: both the design of its notations and the laws that enable its calculations. ALGOL 60 had already shown that orthogonality, simplicity and rigour in a programming language improves the quality of its programs. Our Group’s title “Algorithmic Languages and Calculi” describes our activities: the discovery of precise but more general rules of calculational reasoning for the many new styles of programming that have developed over the 60 years since IFIP’s founding. As our contribution to the birthday celebrations, we outline how we have tried to contribute during those decades to the rigorous and reliable design of computer programs of all kinds—to Algorithmics.

Book Title
Advancing Research in Information and Communication Technology − IFIP's Exciting First 60+ Years‚ Views from the Technical Committees and Working Groups
Editor
Michael Goedicke‚ Erich J. Neuhold‚ Kai Rannenberg
Pages
59−98
Publisher
Springer
Series
IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology
Volume
600
Year
2021