HaPoP 2022
Fifth Symposium on the History and Philosophy of Programming
13 June 2022, Lille, France
Maison Européenne des Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société
Co-located with the final conference of the ANR-funded PROGRAMme project (coming soon).
In a society where computers have become ubiquitous, it is necessary to develop a deeper understanding of the nature of computer programs, not just from the technical viewpoint, but from a broader historical and philosophical perspective. A historical awareness of the evolution of programming not only helps to clarify the complex structure of computing, but it also provides an insight in what programming was, is and could be in the future. Philosophy, on the other hand, helps to tackle fundamental questions about the nature of programs, programming languages and programming as a discipline.
HaPoP 2022 is the fifth edition of the Symposium on the History and Philosophy of Programming, organised by HaPoC, Commission on the History and Philosophy of Computing. As in the previous editions, we are convinced that an interdisciplinary approach is necessary for understanding programming with its multifaceted nature. As such, we welcome participation by researchers and practitioners coming from a diversity of backgrounds, including historians, philosophers, artists, computer scientists and professional software developers.
What is a computer program?
This edition of the symposium will be co-located with the final conference of the ANR-funded PROGRAMme project which poses the basic question “What is a computer program?” This seemingly simple question has no simple answer today, but the responses one gives to it affect very real problems: who is responsible if a given piece of software fails; whether a program is correct or not; or whether copyright or patent law applies to programs. The project is anchored in the conviction that a new kind of foundational research is needed. The broad range of scientific and societal problems related to computing cannot be addressed by any single discipline.
The question “What is a program?”, is a call for deeper critical thinking about the nature of programs that is both foundational, in the sense that it goes beyond specific problems, but also accessible, in the sense that it should be open to anyone who is willing to make an effort in understanding this basic technique from a broader horizon.
In order to open up the ongoing work on the PROGRAMme project, initiate new collaborations that critically reflect on the nature of programs and engage a broader community with the above issues, HaPoP 2022 is particularly looking for talk proposals that relate to the question “What is a computer program?” and offer a novel reflection from a variety of perspectives, including historical, practice-based, philosophical, logical, etc.
Selected topics of interest for the symposium
Possible and in no way exclusive questions of relevance to this symposium are:
What is a computer program?
Are we getting better at writing programs that solve the given problem?
Is programming a specialist discipline, or will everyone in the future be a programmer?
What are the different scientific paradigms and research programmes developed through the history of computer programming?
What is a correct program?
Is a program a text?
Is it possible to eliminate errors from computer programs?
How did the notion of a program change throughout the history?
How are programs and abstractions born, used and understood?
What was and is the relationship between hardware and software developments?
How did theoretical computer science (lambda-calculus, logics, category theory) influence the development of programming languages and vice versa?
What are the novel and most interesting approaches to the design of programs?
What is the nature of the relationship between algorithms and programs?
What legal and socio-economical issues are involved in the creation, patenting and free-distribution of programs?
How do we understand the multi-faceted nature of programs combining syntax, semantics and physical implementation?
How is programming to be taught?
Program committee and registration
HaPoP5 co-chairs are Liesbeth De Mol and Tomas Petricek. If you have any questions regarding suitability of a topic or format of the extended abstract, please contact Liesbeth at cette adresse e-mail or Tomas at cette adresse e-mail. For quick questions, you can also use @tomaspetricek on Twitter.
Arnaud Bailly, Aleryo
Martin Carlé, Ionean University, Corfu
Liesbeth De Mol (co-chair), CNRS, UMR 8163 STL, Université de Lille
Andrea Magnorsky, Independent
Ursula Martin, University of Oxford
Baptiste Mélès, CNRS, UMR 7117 Archives Henri-Poincaré
Tomas Petricek (co-chair), University of Kent
Mark Priestley, National Museum of Computing, Bletchley
Giuseppe Primiero, University of Milan
Registration information of the symposium as well as information about travel grants will be announced soon. Please check this page regularly for updates. We will be also sharing updates via the HaPoC Comission web page (register to get updates via email) and on Twitter at @HaPoComputing.
Dates, format and submissions
For the symposium, we invite submission of two-page extended abstracts (including footnotes, but excluding references). Accepted papers will be given a 30 minute presentation slot including discussion. As with the previous editions, we also intend to submit a proposal for a special issue of a suitable journal for publication of full papers based on the symposium presentations.
Important dates
Submission deadline: 18 March 2022
Author notification: 15 April 2022
HaPoP symposium: 13 June 2022
Important links
Submission web site: HaPoP5 on EasyChair
Financial support: Coming soon
Registraton site: Coming soon
