Software Needs Philosophers

[John D Salt]

"John A. Bailo" <jabailo at texeme.com> wrote in
news:WOadnW-sRKmdoe7Z4p2dnA at speakeasy.net: 

[Snips]
> What exciting new ideas exist in software that are both important and 
> cannot be traced back to Doug Engbart's 1968 presentation at Xerox
> Parc? 

The only two I would think worth mentioning are Nygaard et al's ideas on 
patterns as embodied in Mjolner Beta, and Colmerauer's on logic programming 
as embodied in Prolog.  And maybe pi calculus, if only for sticking the 
formal foundation in where it was missing from under O-O.

But Prolog and pi calculus are regarded as marginal activities, and most 
software people have stil contrived never to have heard of Nygaard, despite 
his being the inventor (with Ole-Johan Dahl) of O-O in 1967.

All the best,

John.