Programming Language Evolution: Pushing The Limits Of Technology

Carol Thompson Eidt, Microsoft Research, Redmond, Washington

Stevenson Hall 1300
11:00 AM - 11:50 AM

Programming models, and their syntactical representation, have been forced over the years to compromise based on limits in supporting technologies. These technologies include the speed and capacity of the underlying processors, compiler techniques, software engineering methodologies and user interface design. Programming languages have continually evolved to maintain a balance between programmer productivity, compiler complexity, and runtime efficiency. This talk will trace the evolution of programming languages, along with the technologies that both constrained and enabled that evolution, with an emphasis on the interplay between processor architecture and compiler design.