Documents that Changed Computer Science Forever

We all know the big names and the languages floating around but do we really know how they all started? The very first Fortran manual published in 1956? Or the C reference manual that Dennis Ritchie released to the research community in 1976? Or the Ethernet patent filed in 1975? These are all historic documents that must be kept in a Computer Science Museum – do we have one yet? – The list contains documents ranging from Programming Languages to Software Systems to Architecture and Networks. You might have never seen any of them but you know all the big names founded on them. You sure have to take a look!

Programming Languages:

Fortran:
The very first Fortran manual written by John Backus in 1956.

Pascal:
Niklaus Wirth defined Pascal in the very first report of the ETH computer science department in 1970. He also implemented it on the CDC6600 computer. The Programming Language Pascal (Revised Report) appeared in November 1972 and laid the foundation for the whole Pascal language movement.

C:
The C Reference Manual by Dennis Ritchie from the 6th edition of Unix operating system, about 1976 is the version that made C known in the research community.

C++:
The initial version of C++ is described in three Bell Labs reports by Bjarne Stroustrup, all from 1984: C++ Reference Manual (CSTR 108), Data Abstraction in C (CSTR 109), and C++ Tutorial (CSTR 113). Just a few pages each.

PL/I:
"Fat" programming languages aren’t new, and the prototypical example without doubt is PL/1. Here is the IBM PL/I (F) Reference Manual of 1969.

Bliss:
Bliss Language Guide by digital equipment corp., 2nd edition, january 1980

Modula-2:
Modula-2 Niklaus Wirth, ETH report 36, 1980

PL360:
The 1960ies saw a number of approaches to replace assembly language, but nevertheless work close to the machine architecture under the name machine-oriented higher level languages or MOHLL for short. Wirth’s PL360 is the best known example. He created it to write the Algol-W compiler at Stanford. The PL360 Reference Manual defines the language.

Software Systems

Flow Charts:
How long have they been around? They were the most power tools programmers of the 60’s used. Some call them ‘flaw’ charts!
1) Flowcharting Techniques, an IBM manual of 1969
2) Coding sheets: IBM /360 assembler, Fortran

Just look at these stencil bars!
 

Stacks:
It was a scheme that most architectures even use to-date in which arithmetic expressions are translated and interpreted in a pushdown stack manner. The patent was filed in 1957 by F.L. Bauer

Dijkstra:
collected manuscripts of Edsger W. Dijkstra (the famous EWD series)

Networks and Architectures:

Ethernet:
The Ethernet patent was filed by Metcalfe, Boggs, Thacker, Lampson in 1975: Multipoint data communication system with collision detection

John Von Neumann:
First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC – Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, published in 1945.

ENIAC:
We all have read about ENIAC. The patent was filed by Mauchly: Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer in 1947.

Are these documents not historic?

You can also browse the complete list here