Amelie Mittlmeier - Programming languages and Communities of Programming

Le séminaire So.Hist-Info, coordonné par Mathilde Fichen, Camille Paloque-Bergès et Adrien Tournier au laboratoire HT2S, et Léandre Bécard au COSTECH (UTC), vous convie à sa sixième séance de la saison 2025-2016

13 avril de 15h à 17h

détails du lieu à venir. Pour assister au séminaire, veuillez vous inscrire ici.

• Amelie Mittlmeier : Programming languages and Communities of Programming

The emergence of so-called high-level programming languages at the end of the 1950s not only marked a technological shift from earlier automatic coding systems but also gave rise to distinct communities of computing. Languages such as FORTRAN and ALGOL were not merely technical tools; they became focal points around which practitioners organized themselves, forming user groups and professional identities. In this sense, programming languages did not simply serve pre-existing communities – they actively contributed to their formation.

As these communities developed, so too did debates about the relative merits of different programming languages. However, these discussions were marked by the absence of clearly defined and widely accepted criteria for evaluating programming languages. They reflected deeper disagreements about the nature of programming itself – whether it should be understood as a scientific discipline, an engineering practice, or even an artistic endeavor.

This lecture asks why the question of the “best” programming language became such a relevant and persistent concern among experts - and why it lost its relevance at the end of the 1960s. It examines the debates between different language communities and analyzes how these controversies shaped both technological development and the emerging research field of programming. By situating these discussions in their historical context, the talk highlights how competition and disagreement contributed to deepening experts’ understanding of programming and thus to the formation of the field.