Can Programming Be Liberated from the von Neumann Style? A Functional Style and Its Algebra of Programs
E557585
"Can Programming Be Liberated from the von Neumann Style? A Functional Style and Its Algebra of Programs" is a landmark 1977 paper that introduced and advocated for functional programming as an alternative to traditional von Neumann architectures, laying theoretical foundations for modern functional languages.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Can Programming Be Liberated from the von Neumann Style? A Functional Style and Its Algebra of Programs canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5945348 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Can Programming Be Liberated from the von Neumann Style? A Functional Style and Its Algebra of Programs Context triple: [John Backus, wrote, Can Programming Be Liberated from the von Neumann Style? A Functional Style and Its Algebra of Programs]
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A.
An Axiomatic Basis for Computer Programming
"An Axiomatic Basis for Computer Programming" is a seminal 1969 paper by C.A.R. Hoare that introduced the formal logical system now known as Hoare logic for reasoning about program correctness.
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B.
A Discipline of Programming
A Discipline of Programming is a seminal 1976 book by Edsger W. Dijkstra that rigorously develops program construction using formal mathematical reasoning and correctness proofs.
-
C.
Notes on Structured Programming
Notes on Structured Programming is a seminal work by Edsger W. Dijkstra that advocates for disciplined, mathematically grounded program design and helped popularize the principles of structured programming.
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D.
Scheme: An Interpreter for Extended Lambda Calculus
"Scheme: An Interpreter for Extended Lambda Calculus" is the seminal 1975 technical report by Gerald Jay Sussman and Guy L. Steele Jr. that introduced the Scheme programming language and demonstrated the power of lexical scoping and first-class procedures in a minimalist Lisp dialect.
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E.
Revised^n Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
The Revised^n Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme is the series of formal documents that define and evolve the official specification of the Scheme programming language.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Can Programming Be Liberated from the von Neumann Style? A Functional Style and Its Algebra of Programs Target entity description: "Can Programming Be Liberated from the von Neumann Style? A Functional Style and Its Algebra of Programs" is a landmark 1977 paper that introduced and advocated for functional programming as an alternative to traditional von Neumann architectures, laying theoretical foundations for modern functional languages.
-
A.
Landin’s SECD machine
Landin’s SECD machine is an early abstract machine for functional programming languages that introduced a systematic model for evaluating expressions using a stack, environment, control, and dump.
-
B.
An Axiomatic Basis for Computer Programming
"An Axiomatic Basis for Computer Programming" is a seminal 1969 paper by C.A.R. Hoare that introduced the formal logical system now known as Hoare logic for reasoning about program correctness.
-
C.
A Discipline of Programming
A Discipline of Programming is a seminal 1976 book by Edsger W. Dijkstra that rigorously develops program construction using formal mathematical reasoning and correctness proofs.
-
D.
Notes on Structured Programming
Notes on Structured Programming is a seminal work by Edsger W. Dijkstra that advocates for disciplined, mathematically grounded program design and helped popularize the principles of structured programming.
-
E.
Scheme: An Interpreter for Extended Lambda Calculus
"Scheme: An Interpreter for Extended Lambda Calculus" is the seminal 1975 technical report by Gerald Jay Sussman and Guy L. Steele Jr. that introduced the Scheme programming language and demonstrated the power of lexical scoping and first-class procedures in a minimalist Lisp dialect.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (43)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | scientific paper ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
John Backus Turing Award
ⓘ
linked to:
Turing Award
|
| author | John Backus ⓘ |
| centralConcept |
composition of functions
ⓘ
elimination of mutable state ⓘ equational reasoning about programs ⓘ programs as mathematical objects ⓘ |
| criticizes | von Neumann style of programming ⓘ |
| doi | 10.1145/359576.359579 ⓘ |
| endPage | 641 ⓘ |
| field |
computer science
ⓘ
functional programming ⓘ programming languages ⓘ |
| hasAbbreviation | Backus 1978 Turing lecture ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance |
foundational work in algebra of programs
ⓘ
landmark paper in functional programming ⓘ |
| influenced |
FP programming language
ⓘ
linked to:
Hope programming language
Haskell ⓘ ML programming language ⓘ
linked to:
ML
modern functional programming languages ⓘ |
| issue | 8 ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| length | 29 pages ⓘ |
| originalPresentationYear | 1977 ⓘ |
| presentedAt |
1977 ACM Turing Award lecture
ⓘ
linked to:
Notes on Structured Programming
|
| proposes | functional style of programming ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1978 ⓘ |
| publishedIn | Communications of the ACM ⓘ |
| publisher | Association for Computing Machinery ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
applicative programming
ⓘ
dataflow programming ⓘ |
| relatedWork | FP: A Functional Programming System ⓘ |
| startPage | 613 ⓘ |
| targetAudience |
computer science theorists
ⓘ
programming language researchers ⓘ software engineers ⓘ |
| topic |
algebra of programs
ⓘ
functional programming ⓘ higher-order functions ⓘ program transformation ⓘ programming paradigms ⓘ von Neumann architecture ⓘ |
| volume | 21 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Can Programming Be Liberated from the von Neumann Style? A Functional Style and Its Algebra of Programs Description of subject: "Can Programming Be Liberated from the von Neumann Style? A Functional Style and Its Algebra of Programs" is a landmark 1977 paper that introduced and advocated for functional programming as an alternative to traditional von Neumann architectures, laying theoretical foundations for modern functional languages.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
John Backus
→
wrote
→
Can Programming Be Liberated from the von Neumann Style? A Functional Style and Its Algebra of Programs
ⓘ