The Preparation Of Programs For An Electronic Digital Computer: With Special Reference To The Edsac And The Use Of A Library Of Subroutines by Maurice V. Wilkes

Even before the staff of the Cambridge University Mathematical Laboratory completed work on the EDSAC, the first stored-program computer in operation, in 1949, they started on the task of devising an organized programming system for its use. The authors were principle contributors to this system, which they describe in detail in this first: practical text on computer programming. The book presents the elegant symbolic notation and coding for the large subroutine library that provided the building blocks for an array of programs. At the time, these concepts were at the leading edge of programming virtuosity, foreshadowing the powerful systems that were developed later.