Editing Programming Research Group (section)

{{Short description|Department of the Oxford University Computing Laboratory}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
The '''Programming Research Group''' ('''PRG''') was part of the [[Oxford University Computing Laboratory]] (OUCL) in [[Oxford]], [[England]], along with the [[Numerical Analysis Group]], until OUCL became the [[Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford|Department of Computer Science]] in 2011.<ref name="cshistory">{{cite web| url=https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/aboutus/cshistory.html | title=About the Department of Computer Science | publisher=[[Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford]] | location=UK | accessdate=7 September 2020 }}</ref>

The PRG was founded by [[Christopher Strachey]] (1916–1975) <ref>{{cite web |url=//vmoc.museophile.org/pioneers/strachey.html |title=Christopher Strachey (1916–1975) |work=[[Virtual Museum of Computing]] |publisher=[[Internet Archive]] |date=2007 |accessdate=3 May 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926235419/http://vmoc.museophile.org/pioneers/strachey.html |archivedate=September 26, 2007 }}</ref> in 1965. It was originally located at 45 [[Banbury Road]].<ref>{{cite web| url=https://archives.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repositories/2/archival_objects/28442 | title=Expenditure for house occupied by the Programming Research Group, 1966–1968 | work=Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts | publisher=[[Bodleian Library]], [[University of Oxford]] | location=UK | id=MS. Eng. misc. b. 255/B.25 | accessdate=7 September 2020 }}</ref>

[[File:Hoare.jpg|thumb|[[Tony Hoare]], leader of the PRG from 1977 to 1999]]
After Strachey's untimely death, [[C.A.R. Hoare]], [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]] took over the leadership in 1977.<ref name="history">{{cite web |url=//web.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/about/background.html |title=History and Structure |publisher=Oxford University Computing Laboratory, [[Internet Archive]] |date=2007 |accessdate=3 May 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070618131143/http://web.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/about/background.html |archivedate=June 18, 2007 }}</ref> The PRG ethos is summed up by the following quotation from Strachey, found and promulgated by Tony Hoare after he arrived at the PRG:

{{quote|''It has long been my personal view that the separation of practical and theoretical work is artificial and injurious. Much of the practical work done in [[computing]], both in [[software]] and in [[computer hardware|hardware]] design, is unsound and clumsy because the people who do it have not any clear understanding of the fundamental design principles of their work. Most of the abstract mathematical and theoretical work is sterile because it has no point of contact with real computing. One of the central aims of the Programming Research Group as a teaching and research group has been to set up an atmosphere in which this separation cannot happen.''<ref name="history" /><ref>{{cite web |url=//web.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/courses/undergrad06-07/handbook/ |title=Undergraduate handbook 2006–07 |publisher=Oxford University Computing Laboratory, [[Internet Archive]] |date=2007 |accessdate=3 May 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070720181945/http://web.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/courses/undergrad06-07/handbook/ |archivedate=July 20, 2007 }}</ref>}}

The PRG moved to 8–11 [[Keble Road]] in 1984. During the later 1980s and early 1990s, some members of the PRG were housed at 2 [[South Parks Road]], including [[Joseph Goguen]] (who was at the PRG during 1988–1996). Tony Hoare retired in 1999 and the PRG was led by [[Samson Abramsky]] from 2000. The PRG continued until the renaming of the Oxford University Computing Laboratory to the Department of Computer Science on 1 June 2011, under the leadership of [[Bill Roscoe]], a former member of the PRG.<ref name="cshistory" />

The PRG was a centre of excellence in the field of [[formal methods]],<ref>{{cite arXiv| title=The development and deployment of formal methods in the UK | first1=Cliff B. | last1=Jones | authorlink=Cliff Jones (computer scientist) | first2=Martyn | last2=Thomas | authorlink2=Martyn Thomas | date=11 June 2020 | class=cs.SE | eprint=2006.06327 }}</ref> playing a leading role in the development of the [[Z notation]] (initiated by a visit of [[Jean-Raymond Abrial]]) and [[Communicating Sequential Processes|CSP]] (together with the associated [[Occam programming language]]). It won [[Queen's Awards for Enterprise|Queen's Awards]] with [[IBM]] and [[Inmos]] for work in this area.