Artifact Details

Description

From abstract: " In response to government requests, IBM Research designed a system for a very large data processing application, known as the HARVEST system, including Stretch, which was delivered to the National Security Agency in the early 1960s. The combined Stretch-HARVEST Project created a milieu for developing new technologies, new hardware architectures, and new software to meet the challenges of both systems. One of the guiding principles of the project was to make programming easier by the use of a compiler to generate code automatically from statements in the user's language.

Allen was a member of the ALPHA language design team which created a very high level language featuring, among other things, the ability to create new alphabets beyond the system defined alphabets (e.g. English, decimal, integer, binary) and treat complex, heterogeneous data in high-level statements. In addition to an overview of Stretch-HARVEST, the talk will describe some of the lesser known aspects of the project the people and institutions involved, the political climate, and the shared knowledge, views, and value systems which were part of this interesting project at an interesting time in the history of computing. "

Date

2000-11-08

Credits

Allen, Frank

Publisher

Xerox PARC

Place of Publication

Palo Alto, CA, USA

Duration

01:12:17

Dimensions

10" cassette

Format

Betacam SP

Copyright Holder

Unknown Copyright Holder

Category

Lecture

Lot Number

X4835.2009

Related Records

102621819	Stretch HARVEST Compiler, lecture by Fran Allen
102622143	Stretch HARVEST Compiler, lecture by Fran Allen