"Wat For Ever:" Student-Oriented Computing at the University of Waterloo

Author

Campbell, Stuart

Volume

35

Issue

1

fYear

2013

fDate

Jan.-March 2013

Firstpage

11

Lastpage

22

Abstract

In 1965, four undergraduates at the University of Waterloo wrote Watfor, a fast student-oriented Fortran compiler for the school´s IBM 7040, largely because the available Fortran compiler was slow and offered weak diagnostic and debugging tools. This article describes the birth and evolution of the Watfor family and explores how it fits into the University of Waterloo´s unique-within-Canada cooperative education program and pedagogical philosophy.

Keywords

FORTRAN; computer science education; educational computing; educational institutions; program compilers; program debugging; program diagnostics; software tools; IBM 7040; University of Waterloo; Watfor family; debugging tools; diagnostic tools; fast student-oriented Fortran compiler; pedagogical philosophy; student-oriented computing; unique-within-Canada cooperative education program; Computer languages; Computer science education; Education courses; Program processors; Canadian computing; Fortran; Watfor; computer science; computer science education; history of computing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Annals of the History of Computing, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1058-6180

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MAHC.2012.1

Filename

6127844