Algebraic technique of classifying languages in families

This talk is part of the MEMOCODE conference taking place at Microsoft Research, Cambridge on Monday 11th – Wednesday 13th July 2011.

Speaker Details

My first (and only) degree was from Oxford University in Classical Languages and Philosophy (1956). I learnt Russian in the Royal Navy (1958), Statistics at Oxford (1959), and spent a year at Moscow State University (1960). There I studied contemporary work on the machine translation of languages (English to Russian).

My first job was as a programmer for a small British Computer Manufacturer. I led the project which delivered the first commercial translator for ALGOL 60, before promotion to technical management in charge of development of all the Company’s software and hardware products. I then spent two years in the Research Laboratory, before the Company was merged into a much larger one.

This was the cue to move (1968) as Professor, to the Queen’s University, Belfast, where I pursued longer-term research into the role of assertions as a scientific basis for the design of programs and of programming languages. The research continued and intensified on my move to Oxford University in 1977. My laboratory established a good record for collaboration with Industry in both hardware and software design; we won several awards, and spun off several Companies that still flourish.

On reaching retirement age for an academic in Britain, I gladly took up an offer to return to Industry at Microsoft Research in Cambridge. My goal remains the same: to build good links between academic research into programming theory, and industrial practices contributing to timely delivery of high quality software.

Date:
Speakers:
Tony Hoare
Affiliation:
MSR Cambridge