Susan Bond | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1942 (age 82–83) |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation(s) | Science researcher, research manager |
| Years active | 1965–1993 |
| Known for | Computing research |
| Notable work | ALGOL 68-R |
Susan Bond (born 1942), was a scientific officer and computerprogrammer for the Mathematics Division of theRoyal Radar Establishment (RRE) in the United Kingdom. She worked extensively on theprogramming languageALGOL 68 and theRoyal Radar Establishment Automatic Computer (RREAC), an earlysolid-state electronics,ICL 1907F computer.[1][2]
Bond was born in 1942 and grew up inDagenham,Essex, in theUnited Kingdom (UK). Both her parents were teachers, and she was an only child.[1] She studied atBristol University from 1962 to 1965, where she studied mathematics and science and receivedfirst-class honours.
After graduating from Bristol, Bond was interested in working in applied mathematics, although she didn't have computer training before then. She applied to and joined the Mathematics Division of the RRE in 1965;[3] she was hired by Britishmathematician and engineerPhilip Woodward. Her work mostly consisted of writingoperating systems andcompilers, not "numerical" computing.[1] At the start of her career, Bond was the only female scientific officer with a graduate education at RRE.[4] Bond later learned that her supervisor Woodward had been, as historianJanet Abbate describes, "'actively recruiting women' as an affordable source of high-quality researchers".[5]
One of her first projects was reimplementingSyntax Improving Device (SID), acompiler-compiler tool developed by fellow RRE employee Michael Foster, to generate compilers forhigh-level programming languages.[1] Afterward, she worked with Ian Currie onCORAL 64, a high-level language forembedded system computers.
The RRE had originally usedALGOL 60 for the RREAC from its initial development in 1963. After theInternational Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) published the specifications for the more powerfulALGOL 68 in 1968, RRE attempted to adapt it for use on the RREAC. Bond worked with John Morison and Ian Currie on ALGOL 68-R, the first compiler implementation of ALGOL 68, and they announced its creation at the 20–24 July 1970IFIP Working Conference on ALGOL 68 Implementation in Munich.[6][2] Their ALGOL 68-R was an adaptation of the ALGOL 60 compiler they had built for RREAC. The team that worked on ALGOL 68-R intended for the language to become the RRE's primary programming language, which could be used for scientific programming as well as business administration tasks like payroll and taking inventory.[7][2]
After the publication of the ALGOL 68-R specifications, Bond and Woodward published a narrative guide to ALGOL 68, titled "ALGOL 68-R User’s Guide" throughHM Stationery Office. The initial 17,000 copy run sold out.[6] Bond effectively provided ongoing support for the compiler: readers would contact her whenever they had trouble implementing it. Bond and Woodward continued to update and publish new versions of their guide for the RRE's later implementations of ALGOL, such asALGOL 68RS. One reviewer, Richard Shreeve, contested that while their 1983 titleGuide to ALGOL 68 for Users of RS Systems was an "excellent reference text", it gives "insufficient help to the beginner or newcomer to ALGOL 68".[8]
In 1976, the RRE merged with several other research institutions into a renamedRoyal Signals and Radar Establishment. In 1980, Bond was promoted to Superintendent of Computing and Software Research there.[1][9] As part of her role, Bond collaborated with theOpen Software Foundation on aninternationalopentechnical standard forUnix operating systems, named theArchitecture Neutral Distribution Format, and on computing policy for the UKMinistry of Defense.
Bond retired from work in 1993.
Bond met her husband, Chris Sennett, while working at the RRE.[1]
