EDSAC Books

Originally published by Addison-Wesley in 1951. This book establishes the field of computer programming. The chapters are titled "The Design of Programs For Electronic Computing Machines", "Input of Orders", "Subroutines and Parameters", "Library Subroutines and Their Use in Constructing Programs", "Pitfalls", "Use of the EDSAC and Its Associated Equipment", "Examples", and "Specifications of Library Subroutines". The first automatic computer (Harvard Mark I) with mechanical parts and the first automatic electronic computer (ENIAC) were finished in 1944 and 1946 respectively. In 1945 the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania proposed storing instruction codes in memory. This design, called the "von Neumann architecture", is used by all modern computers. Maurice V. Wilkes, one of the authors, finished building the first stored-program electronic digital computer (EDSAC) in 1949.

The EDSAC programmer's (Wilkes, Wheeler, and Gill) were the first to have practical programming experience using the stored-program architecture. The authors establish the subroutine as the fundamental component of source code. They developed the first subroutine library, linker (a mechanical device to copy subroutines to the master program tape), and loader (the initial orders program). In addition, they are the first to design an assembly language, develop formal subroutine specifications, and to use debugging core dumps, single-step debugging facilities, trace statements, desk checking, and syntax checking (a mechanical device to compare tapes). Published the first set of example programs that execute on an actual stored program computer. First use of literate programming and white space for improving program comprehension. [The authors use named boxes to indicate code insertions from the subroutine library. These boxes can also represent other code fragments that are not part of the subroutine library. The programs presented in chapter 7 use the "literate style".]