Call Number: OH 128
Interviewee: Bauer, Friedrich Ludwig, 1924-
Interviewer: William Aspray
Repository: Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Description: Transcript, 19 pp.
Abstract: Bauer briefly reviews his early life and education in Bavaria through his years in the German army during World War II. He discusses his education in mathematics and theoretical physics at the University of Munich through the completion of his Ph.D. in 1952. He explains how he first came in contact with work on modern computers through a seminar in graduate school and how he and Klaus Samelson were led to join the PERM group in 1952. Work on the hardware design and on compilers is mentioned. Bauer then discusses the origins and design of the logic computer STANISLAUS, and his role in its development. The next section of the interview describes the European side of the development of ALGOL, including his work and that of Rutishauser, Samelson, and Bottenbrach. The interview concludes with a brief discussion of Bauer's work in numerical analysis in the 1950s and 1960s and his subsequent investigations of programming methodology.
Subject(s):
STANISLAUS (Computer) ; Samelson, Klaus, 1918- . ; Physics -- Study and teaching (Higher) ; Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Higher) ; Computers -- Germany (West) -- History ; Computer engineering ; Bauer, Friedrich Ludwig, 1924- ; ALGOL (Computer program language) -- Research. ; Universität München
Citation: Friedrich Ludwig Bauer, OH 128. Oral history interview by William Aspray, 17 February 1987, Munich, West Germany. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Copyright: Copyright to this oral history is held by the Charles Babbage Institute. Distribution in any format of the transcript in its entirety is prohibited. Permission to quote from the transcript under the fair use provision of the copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code) is granted provided that this source is cited.
Transcript: Link to transcript