@article {de2013haskell, title = {Haskell before Haskell: an alternative lesson in practical logics of the ENIAC}, journal = {Journal of Logic and Computation}, year = {In Press}, abstract = {

This article expands on Curry{\textquoteright}s work on how to implement the problem of inverse interpolation on the ENIAC (1946) and his subsequent work on developing a theory of program composition (1948–1950). It is shown that Curry{\textquoteright}s hands-on experience with the ENIAC on the one side and his acquaintance with systems of formal logic on the other, were conductive to conceive a compact ‘notation for program construction’ which in turn would be instrumental to a mechanical synthesis of programs. Since Curry{\textquoteright}s systematic programming technique pronounces a critique of the Goldstine-von Neumann style of coding, his ‘calculus of program composition’ not only anticipates automatic programming but also proposes explicit hardware optimizations largely unperceived by computer history until Backus{\textquoteright} famous ACM Turing Award lecture (1977). The cohesion of these findings asks for an integrative historiographical approach. An appendix gives, for the first time, a full description of Curry{\textquoteright}s arithmetic compiler.

}, doi = {10.1093/logcom/exs072}, author = {De Mol, Liesbeth and Carl{\'e}, Martin and Bullynck, Maarten} }