Reflections on Programming Systems: Historical and Philosophical Aspects

284 Pages·2018·4.26 MB·English

by  Liesbeth De Mol, Giuseppe Primiero

Philosophical Studies Series
Liesbeth De Mol · Giuseppe Primiero
Editors
Refl ections on
Programming
Systems
Historical and Philosophical Aspects
Philosophical Studies Series
Volume 133
Editor-in-Chief
Luciano Floridi, University of Oxford, Oxford Internet Institute, United Kingdom
Mariarosaria Taddeo, University of Oxford, Oxford Internet Institute, United
Kingdom
ExecutiveEditorialBoard
PatrickAllo,VrijeUniversiteitBrussel,Belgium
MassimoDurante,UniversitàdegliStudidiTorino,Italy
PhyllisIllari,UniversityCollegeLondon,UnitedKingdom
ShannonVallor,SantaClaraUniversity
BoardofConsultingEditors
LynneRudderBaker,UniversityofMassachusettsatAmherst
StewartCohen,ArizonaStateUniversity,Tempe
RaduBogdan,TulaneUniversity
MarianDavid,UniversityofNotreDame
JohnM.Fischer,UniversityofCaliforniaatRiverside
KeithLehrer,UniversityofArizona,Tucson
DeniseMeyerson,MacquarieUniversity
FrançoisRecanati,InstitutJean-Nicod,EHESS,Paris
MarkSainsbury,UniversityofTexasatAustin
BarrySmith,StateUniversityofNewYorkatBuffalo
NicholasD.Smith,Lewis&ClarkCollege
LindaZagzebski,UniversityofOklahoma
Moreinformationaboutthisseriesathttp://www.springer.com/series/6459
Liesbeth De Mol (cid:129) Giuseppe Primiero
Editors
Reflections on Programming
Systems
Historical and Philosophical Aspects
123
Editors
LiesbethDeMol GiuseppePrimiero
CNRS,UMR8163Savoirs,Textes,Langage DepartmentofPhilosophy
Villeneuved’Ascq,France UniversityofMilan
Milano,Italy
ISSN0921-8599 ISSN2542-8349 (electronic)
PhilosophicalStudiesSeries
ISBN978-3-319-97225-1 ISBN978-3-319-97226-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97226-8
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Baptiste Mélès and Raphaël Fournier-S’niehotta for their
help with setting up and chairing HaPoP-3. We are also very grateful to the
participantstothesymposiumaswellasthePCmembersfortheirhelpinselecting
theacceptedtalks.Finally,thisbookvolumewouldnothavebeenpossiblewithout
thecarefulandcriticalreadingofthedifferentreviewerswhohelpedtoimprovethe
contributions.
v
Contents
1 Programming Systems: in Search of Historical and
PhilosophicalFoundations................................................. 1
LiesbethDeMolandGiuseppePrimiero
PartI ProgrammingWithoutSystems
2 ValidityandCorrectnessBeforetheOS:theCaseofLEOI
andLEOII.................................................................. 15
RabiaArif,ElisabettaMori,andGiuseppePrimiero
3 What Is an Operating System? A Historical Investigation
(1954–1964).................................................................. 49
MaartenBullynck
PartII FormalizingSystems
4 FormalSemanticsofALGOL60:FourDescriptionsintheir
HistoricalContext .......................................................... 83
TroyK.Astarte,CliffB.Jones
5 Sans-PapiersasFirst-ClassCitizens...................................... 153
JulianRohrhuber
PartIII CreatingSystems
6 Unix,Plan9andtheLurkingSmalltalk ................................. 189
StephenKell
7 Unix:BuildingaDevelopmentEnvironmentfromScratch............ 215
WarrenToomey
vii
viii Contents
PartIV EvaluatingSystems
8 EthicalOperatingSystems ................................................ 235
Naveen Sundar Govindarajulu, Selmer Bringsjord, Atriya Sen,
Jean-ClaudePaquin,andKevinO’Neill
9 FromSovereignOperatingSystemstotheSovereignDigitalChain.. 261
GaëlDuval
10 EleganceinSoftware....................................................... 273
RobinK.Hill
Chapter 1
Programming Systems: in Search of
Historical and Philosophical Foundations
LiesbethDeMolandGiuseppePrimiero
Todaywetendtogoonforyears,withtremendousinvestments
tofindthatthesystem,whichwasnotwellunderstoodtostart
with,doesnotworkasanticipated.Webuildsystemslikethe
Wrightbrothersbuiltairplanes—buildthewholething,pushit
offthecliff,letitcrash,andstartoveragain.
(Graham,inSoftwareEngineeringandSociety,Naurand
Randell1968.)
Abstract This chapter introduces the topics investigated in this book and it
framestheminabroaderhistoricalandphilosophicalanalysisofprogrammingand
computingtechnology.
Keywords Historyofprogrammingsystems · Softwarecrisis · Formalmethods ·
Granddesignsystems · Ethical,legalandpoliticalissuesofsoftwaresystems
1.1 MethodologicalBackground
The purpose of this book is to engage with historical and philosophical issues
underpinningwhatweidentifyhere,as‘programmingsystems’,viz.largesystems
thathavebeenprogrammedinordertocontrolsomeprocessorsetofprocesses.
In a recent paper published in the Communications of the ACM, we read the
following assessment of the state of modern computing systems, (Neumann 2017,
p.3):
L.DeMol((cid:2))
CNRS,UMR8163Savoirs,Textes,Langage,Villeneuved’Ascq,France
e-mail:[email protected]
G.Primiero
DepartmentofPhilosophy,UniversityofMilan,Milano,Italy
e-mail:[email protected]
©SpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2018 1
L.DeMol,G.Primiero(eds.),ReflectionsonProgrammingSystems,Philosophical
StudiesSeries133,https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97226-8_1
2 L.DeMolandG.Primiero
Unfortunately, the trends for the future seem relatively bleak. Computer system trust-
worthiness and the implications of its absence are increasingly being questioned. Semi-
andfullyautonomoussystems,theseeminglyimminentInternetofThings,andartificial
intelligenceareprovidingfurtherexamplesinwhichincreasingcomplexityleadstoobscure
and unexplainable system behavior. The concept of trustworthiness seems to becoming
supplantedwithpeoplefalselyplacingtheirtrustinsystemsandpeoplethataresimplynot
trustworthy—withoutanystrongcasesbeingmadeforsafety,security,orindeedassurance
thatmightotherwisebefoundinregulatedcriticalindustries.
Trustworthiness of large systems is just one of a growing number of serious
problems relatedtocomputing, withthepotentialtoaffectmillionsoflives.1 This
isduenotjusttopropertiesofthesystemsthemselves,butalsototheiruse,design
anddevelopment byhumans.Ontheonehand,thesesystemsareubiquitous,both
in terms of usage and impact: almost everyone in large part of the developed
world interacts constantly with a computing device; also, some of these systems
have progressively evolved into cyber-physical entities, capable of acting upon
and being affected by the external environment. On the other hand, there is an
obvious mismatch between the complexity and ability of these systems to act in
our world, and the level of knowledge required to interact critically with them.
While the possibility to use them without expert knowledge has been a major
factor in the diffusion of computing systems, it also has the important drawback
that computing systems are nowadays used mostly by people who are unaware of
the risks and consequences involved. Additionally, the increasing complexity and
size of those systems, which is often rooted in a historically accumulated set of
layersofabstractionandso-calledbloatedsoftwaresystems(Wirth1995),hasonly
deepenedtheissuesofsoftwaredesign,developmentandmaintenanceastheycame
tobeknowninthe1960s.Byconsequence,ithasbecomemoredifficulttoprevent
(potentially disastrous) errors. While this is principally a technical concern, it
involvesalsopoliticalandcommercialaspectsunderpinningthedesign,production
and distribution of computing systems. From the point of view of the social and
politicalimplications,sufficeheretomentionissuesofaccountabilityinalgorithm
designandprivacyofusers.2
Given these circumstances, we are very much in need of a deeper reflection
on the nature of computing systems. A methodological safe ground for such an
investigation into the foundations of computing would require us to have a clear
understandingofthefieldinitself,oftherelationsamongitsseveralsub-fields,and
1This is a long standing issue in computing, touching on several areas. One of the early and
most broad views on computing, risk and trust can be found in MacKenzie (2004). Recently,
theareaofcomputationaltrusthasgrownsensiblyinitsimpactandapplications,fromsoftware
packagesdistributionsystemstovehicularnetworks,seee.g.PrimieroandBoender(2017)and
Primieroetal.(2017)forsomeapproachandoverviewsoftherelatedliteratures.Forahigh-level
commentaryontrustofdigitaltechnologies,seeTaddeo(2017).
2The issue of algorithm accountability is gaining much traction, especially in view of current
progress in AI. For a recent high-level analysis of the problem, see Diakopoulos and Friedler
(2016).Forcontributionsconcerningthedebateontheethicalrelevanceofalgorithmsintermsof
accountabilityandtheirpublicimpact,seeMittelstadtetal.(2016)andBinns(2017).