Yi Dai, Lev Lamberov, Klaus Ostermann
We have learned concepts and properties of programming languages. Yet that is not the whole picture. Programming languages, as artifacts for describing information processing, are situated in a larger background that involves humans, machines and other real-world objects. When looking at this bigger picture, a lot of interesting questions about them emerge: What is the nature of their meaning? How do they reach out to the world and in to our mind? How do they interact with their community? What are aesthetic and ethic considerations about them? These questions go beyond the reach of computer science and require the attendance of philosophy.
This discussion seminar is a journey through philosophical investigations into these questions raised about programming languages. There may be no definite answers to them. However, it is our wish that, through this journey, we will gain not only a broader view of programming languages from a philosophical perspective but also the ability to consider and evaluate programming languages philosophically.
14:00~16:00 Every Wednesday
SR V 5D
It is recommended that you take a course on programming languages (e.g., Programming Languages and Types) before participating in this discussion seminar. If you do not and are anyway interested, you are of course welcome. But be aware that you may need to read some (not much) extra material in case you lack the background.
No philosophical background is required. But if you have, it will of course help.
This is a weekly discussion seminar. In each week's meeting (except the first which will be a kickoff introduction), one of you will present an article announced in the previous week and afterwards lead a discussion about it involving all attendants. All of you are required to read the article and submit a summary of it 24 hours before each week's meeting. The one who volunteers to be the leader of that week's meeting of course need also prepare for presentation and moderation.
- 2014-04-16
Kickoff meeting
- 2014-04-23
Meeting cancelled
- 2014-04-30
The article discussed: Graham White, The Philosophy of Computer Languages, 2004
Discussion Leader: Lev
- 2014-05-07
The article discussed: Raymond Turner, Understanding Programming Languages, 2007
Discussion Leader: Paolo
- 2014-05-14
The artitle discussed: William J. Rapaport, Implementation Is Semantic Interpretation, 1999
Discussion Leader: Felix
- 2014-05-21
The artitle discussed: Raymond Turner, Amnon Eden, Towards a Programming Language Ontology, 2007
Discussion Leader: Willi
- 2014-05-28
Meeting cancelled
- 2014-06-04
The article discussed: Brian C. Smith, Linguistic and Computational Semantics, 1982
Discussion Leader: Yi
- 2014-06-11
The article discussed: William J. Rapaport, Understanding Understanding: Syntactic Semantics and Computational Cognition, 1995
Discussion Leader: Yi
- 2014-06-18
The article discussed: Leo A. Meyerovich, Ariel Rabkin, Socio-PLT: Principles for Programming Language Adoption, 2012
Discussion Leader: Willi
- 2014-07-02
The articles discussed:
Lambert Meertens, The Design of Elegant Languages, 1993
Discussion Leader: Felix
Bruce J. MacLennan, "Who Cares About Elegance?" The Role of Aesthetics in Programming Language Design, 1997
Discussion Leader: Willi
- 2014-07-09
The article discussed: Brian C. Smith, The Limits of Correctness, 1985
Discussion Leader: Yi
- 2014-07-16 (last session)
The article discussed: Tomas Petricek, What Can Programming Language Research Learn from the Philosophy of Science, 2014
Discussion Leader: Lev
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Graham White, The Philosophy of Computer Languages, 2004
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Raymond Turner, Understanding Programming Languages, 2007
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Raymond Turner, Amnon H. Eden, Towards a Programming Language Ontology, 2007
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Raymond Turner, The Meaning of Programming Languages, 2009
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William J. Rapaport, Implementation Is Semantic Interpretation, 1999
- William J. Rapaport, Implementation Is Semantic Interpretation: Further Thoughts, 2005
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Brian C. Smith, Linguistic and Computational Semantics, 1982
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Brian C. Smith, The Correspondence Continuum, 1987
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Brian C. Smith, The Semantics of Clocks, 1988
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Enrico Leonhardt, Simone Röttger, Semantics in Philosophy and Computer Science 2006
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Tom Ormelrod, Human Cognition and Programming, 1990
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William J. Rapaport, Understanding Understanding: Syntactic Semantics and Computational Cognition, 1995
- William J. Rapaport, Understanding Understanding: Semantics, Computation, and Cognition, 1996
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Garry L. White, A Theory of the Relationships between Cognitive Requirements of Computer Programming Languages and Programmers' Cognitive Characteristics, 2002
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Leo A. Meyerovich, Ariel Rabkin, Socio-PLT: Principles for Programming Language Adoption, 2012
- Leo A. Meyerovich, Ariel Rabkin, Empirical Analysis of Programming Language Adoption, 2013
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Lambert Meertens, The Design of Elegant Languages, 1993
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Bruce J. MacLennan, "Who Cares About Elegance?" The Role of Aesthetics in Programming Language Design, 1997
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Michael Mateas, Nick Montfort, A Box, Darkly: Obfuscation, Weird Languages, and Code Aesthetics, 2005
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Brian C. Smith, The Limits of Correctness, 1985
- Brian C. Smith, Limits of Correctness in Computers, 1993
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Shane Markstrum, Staking Claims: A History of Programming Language Design Claims and Evidence, 2010
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Brian C. Smith, Two Lessons of Logic, 1987
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Tomas Petricek, What Can Programming Language Research Learn from the Philosophy of Science?, 2014