Computing Applications
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History and summary of FORTRAN standardization development for the ASA
The American Standards Association (ASA) Sectional Committee X3 for Computers and Information Processing was established in 1960 under the sponsorship of the Business Equipment Manufacturers Association. ASA X 3 in turn established an X3.4 Sectional Subcommittee to work in the area of common programming language standards. On May 17, 1962, X3.4 established by resolution a working group, X3.4.3-FORTRAN to develop American Standard FORTRAN proposals.
Joint inventorship of computers
The term joint inventorship asks but does not necessarily answer the question, “Who is the true inventor of a computer?” I will try to show how “wrong” inventors are joined, how such improper joinder can be avoided, and its dangers. While the law permits the addition or subtraction of improperly joined inventors, it does not permit the substitution of one set of inventors for another set of inventors. Thus, despite corrective weapons, there are some pitfalls which must be avoided.
Computer programs are patentable
It is not surprising that computer programs are not listed in the patent statutes as one of the categories of patentable invention. When these categories were defined many years ago, computers and computer programs were unknown. Therefore, if computer programs are to be patentable within the framework of existing patent law they must fall within one of the specifically defined categories of processes, machines, manufactures or compositions of matter.
Constraint-type statements in programming languages
A proposal is made for including in a programming language statements which imply relations between variables but which are not explicit assignment statements. The compiler sets up a Newtonian iteration making use for the purpose of a routine for formal differentiation.
A method of syntax specification
The addition of a few simple conventions to the Backus Normal Form specification of a language provides a mode of description which is more compact and easier to prepare and use than either the standard BNF description [1] or the corresponding syntactical chart [2].
Extension of existing compilers by sophisticated use of macros
A description is presented of an application in which macros and string concatenation were employed to add a new facility to BELFAP.
A storage allocation and reference structure
A method is proposed and discussed which allows a subscripted-variable capability (in the FORTRAN sense) to be added to AUTOCODER-Type assembly systems.
A computer analysis method for thermal diffusion in biochemical systems
In the thermal detection of rapid biochemical reactions it is necessary to correct the temperature data for transient heat conduction losses in a cylindrical calorimeter. To handle the complexities arising from varying thermal-relaxation times of concentric insulating layers, a computer program was developed which gives the temperature distribution of the system as a function of radius and time. This distribution is corrected at each step by a subroutine which calculates the instantaneous chemical state of the reaction, as well as the heat produced by this reaction.
The program is based on a direct statement of Fourier's law of heat conduction and the chemical rate equation to provide a “bookkeeping law” to follow the reactants and the flow of heat packets, in such a way that the computer continually stores the heat distribution. A computer analysis method is here regarded as one in which the physical laws of a process are used explicitly in the program. Usually this results in bypassing much of the mathematical procedures conventionally used.
A multiuser computation facility for education and research
Present-day computing facilities are limited in their value for scientific research by inability to interact strongly with users. The full power of a research computing instrument should be available at many terminals that give each user the ability to generate, correct and operate any procedure he wishes, either simple or complex.
Implementation is described for a small-scale multiuser computer system that permits several users to work independently with the machine, and to obtain satisfactory response using typewriter communication.
A rapid method for digital filtering
Since much of the computer time spent in time-series analysis is used for multiplications, a minimum multiplication method was devised for digital filtering, with the expectation that it would be useful in the online, real-time analysis of biological data. The filters are constructed from a succession of readily analyzable components in a manner that facilitates cascading. The repertoire of frequency response curves includes relatively good low-pass and band-pass designs. Programs are available for implementing both the synthesis of these filters, and their application on computers whose assemblers allow the definition of recursive macros.
Scheduling meetings with a computer
Computer scheduling of papers as it was developed for the 1960 meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) is described. The FASEB meeting is the largest scientific meeting held in the United States each year. The technique developed for FASEB can be applied to schedule any meeting with parallel sessions.
A note on the formation of free list
The concept of an available-space list was introduced by Newell and Shaw [1] in 1957, and has since been incorporated into a number of different systems [2-5]. The available-space list (or “free list”) is a list of all available memory locations. It should initially be as large as possible, and ideally it would contain every cell not used by the program. The subject of this note is the initial formation of a free list on the IBM 7090-7094, using the FORTRAN II monitor, version 2. The method presented originated while the authors were working on an implementation of the WISP [5] system for the 7090 in cooperation with Prof. M. V. Wilkes and his colleagues.
Machine controls for analysis of variance
A major problem in using the analysis of variance, as the number of factors increases, is the exponential rise in the number of interactions. Even though the experimenter may not be interested in these interactions it is impossible to ignore them in most experimental designs because of the problem of getting error terms.
It is natural therefore to look to the computer to handle the bulk of work involved in computing the interactions. A program device to get the computer to do this is described.
A method for scheduling final examinations to yield a minimal number of student conflicts is described. The “minimization” is achieved by repetitively evaluating a nonlinear set of equations. Imbedded in the process is a random or Monte Carlo selection of assignments. As in such heuristic techniques, the solution may not be optimum and many solutions may be found which yield locally minimal results. Computer programs are described and empirical results given.
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