Peter Naur: Difference between revisions

Peter Naur
Peter Naur
Born	25 October 1928 (age 96); Frederiksberg
Citizenship	Denmark
Known for	ALGOL, ; Backus–Naur Form
Awards	Turing award
	Scientific career
Fields	Computer Science
Institutions	Regnecentralen; Niels Bohr Institute; Technical University of Denmark; University of Copenhagen

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Peter Naur (born 25 October 1928) is a Danish pioneer in computer science and Turing award winner. His last name is the N in the BNF notation (Backus-Naur form), used in the description of the syntax for most programming languages. He contributed to the creation of the ALGOL 60 programming language.

He began his career as an astronomer for which he received his PhD degree in 1957, but his encounter with computers led to a change of profession. From 1959 to 1969 he was employed at Regnecentralen, the Danish computing institute, while at the same time giving lectures at the Niels Bohr Institute and the Technical University of Denmark. From 1969 to 1998 Naur was a professor of computer science at University of Copenhagen.

His main areas of inquiry are design, structure and performance of computer programs and algorithms. Areas such as software engineering and software architecture have also been pioneered by Naur. In his book Computing: A Human Activity (1992), which is a collection of his contributions to computer science, he rejects the formalist school of programming that view programming as a branch of mathematics. He does not like being associated with the Backus-Naur form (attributed to him by Donald Knuth) and says that he would prefer it to be called the Backus Normal Form.

Naur was married to the computer scientist Christiane Floyd.

Naur dislikes the very term computer science and suggests it be called datalogy. This term has also been adopted in Denmark and in Sweden as datalogi.

In later years he has also been quite outspoken of the pursuit of science as a whole: Naur can possibly be identified with the empiricist school, that tells that one shall not seek deeper connections between things that manifest themselves in the world, but keep to the observable facts. He has attacked both certain strands of philosophy and psychology from this viewpoint. He is also currently developing a theory of human thinking which he calls Synapse-State Theory of Mental Life.^[1]

Naur won the 2005 ACM A.M. Turing Award for his work on defining the ALGOL 60 programming language.^[2] In particular, his role as editor of the influential "Report on the Algorithmic Language ALGOL 60" with its pioneering use of BNF was recognized. Naur is the only Dane to have won the Turing Award.

Bibliography

Numbers refer to the published bibliography. Naur published a large number of articles and chapters on astronomy, computer science, issues in society, classical music, psychology, and education.

66. Minor planet 51 Nemausa and the fundamental system of declinations, PhD thesis, 1957
95. (editor) "Report on the algorithmic language ALGOL 60", 1960, published in several journals, including Communication of the ACM 3, 5 (May 1960), pp. 299–314
128. (editor) "Revised report on the algorithmic language ALGOL 60", Communications of the ACM 6, 1 (Jan. 1963), pp. 1–17
144. "Go to statements and good Algol style", BIT 3 (1963), pp. 204–205
212. (editor with B. Randell and J. N. Buxton) Software Engineering, 231 p., 1969, republished 1976
213. (with C. Gram, J. Hald, H. B. Hansen and A. Wessel) Datamatik, Studentlitteratur, 1969
247, 249. (with B. Pedersen) Matematik 4 kursusbog, 2 volumes, Copenhagen University, 1971, 2nd ed. 1972
264. Concise Survey of Computer Methods, 397 p., Studentlitteratur, 1974
274. Datalogi 2 1975/76, 102 p., Copenhagen University, 1975, new edition 1976
333. Computing: A Human Activity, 656 p., ACM Press/Addison-Wesley, 1992
347. Knowing and the Mystique of Logic and Rules, 365 p., Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1995
363. Antifilosofisk leksikon: Tænkning - sproglighed - videnskabelighed, 111 p., 1999, ISBN 87-987221-0-7; English translation 2001, ISBN 87-987221-1-5
382. Psykologi i videnskabelig rekonstruktion, 113 p., 2002, ISBN 87-987221-2-3
Naur, P. 2007. Computing versus human thinking. Commun. ACM 50, 1 (Jan. 2007), 85–94. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1188913.1188922
Daylight, E. G. and Naur, P. Pluralism in Software Engineering: Turing Award Winner Peter Naur Explains, iii + 127 p., Lonely Scholar, 2011, ISBN 9789491386008

References

External links

http://www.naur.com/ with a detailed bibliography
http://www.idiap.ch/mmm/talk-webcast/uist-06/uist06_day1#2006-10-16_09h02 his talk at UIST 2006

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[1] Naur, Synapse-State Theory of Mental Life, 2004.

[2] ACM

[1]

[2]

@@ Line 31: / Line 31: @@
 His main areas of inquiry are design, structure and performance of [[computer program]]s and [[algorithm]]s.  Areas such as [[software engineering]] and [[software architecture]] have also been pioneered by Naur.  In his book ''Computing: A Human Activity'' (1992), which is a collection of his contributions to computer science, he rejects the formalist school of programming that view programming as a branch of [[mathematics]].  He does not like being associated with the [[Backus-Naur form]] (attributed to him by [[Donald Knuth]]) and says that he would prefer it to be called the ''Backus Normal Form''.
-Naur was married with the computer scientist [[Christiane Floyd]].
+Naur was married to the computer scientist [[Christiane Floyd]].
 Naur dislikes the very term ''computer science'' and suggests it be called ''datalogy''.  This term has also been adopted in [[Denmark]] and in [[Sweden]] as ''datalogi''.