Assembly language and subroutines
Lenguaje ensamblador y subrutinas
- Date
- 1949 · confidence medium
- Place
- Mathematical Laboratory, University of Cambridge (EDSAC), United Kingdom
- Credited to
- David Wheeler, Maurice Wilkes and Stanley Gill (EDSAC); Kathleen Booth (ARC, London)
- People
- 👤 David Wheeler1927–2004👤 Kathleen Booth1922–2022👤 Maurice Wilkes1913–2010👤 Stanley Gill1926–1975
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Symbolic notation automatically translated into machine code, together with a library of reusable subroutines. It freed the programmer from writing ones and zeros.
Kathleen Booth described an assembler for the ARC in 1947; Cambridge's EDSAC put it into systematic use in 1949.
What it led to
- The idea of software as a reusable asset and program libraries
- Compilers and high-level languages
- The programmer as a profession
Built on
- Stored-program (von Neumann) architecture1945
- Manchester Baby (SSEM), first stored-program computer1948
- von Neumann architecture
- EDSAC
Made possible
- FORTRAN programming language1957
- Grace Hopper's A-0 compiler
- operating systems