Advanced Programming Specialist Group
The Advanced Programming Specialist Group (APSG) is a Specialist Group (SG) of the British Computer Society (BCS), the Chartered Institute for IT. For more information, please see [1]
For over 50 years, this group has tracked leading edge programming and software technologies, and their application within a real world context. Unlike other specialist groups, Advanced Programming SG concentrates on the new ideas underlying recent developments and is not confined to particular programming languages, paradigms or development methodologies. Membership is open to all BCS members worldwide and events are also open to non-members
We seek to explore new developments in programming languages, runtime environments, programming tools, multicore processors, mobile platforms and end user interfaces which are important to today's real world applications. Please see our web site for details of current activities.
History
The group held its first meeting, when it was referred to as "BCS Study Group No. 5", at Bishop's House, High Holborn, London WC1, England on 17 December 1959. It has met continuously in London since then, generally on the second Thursday of the months from October to May each year.
Past chairmen of the Group were Ewart Willey (first chairman 1959–1974), Professor Peter King (1974–1980), Peter Prowse (1980–1982) and Professor Emeritus John Florentin (1982–2010). The current chairman is Professor Geoff Sharman (2011-).
From time to time, the Group has held joint meetings with other BCS Specialist Groups, including:
- May 2010, with Fortran SG, Parallel Programming in Fortran with Coarrays
- January 2010 with Computer Conservation Society, The 50th Anniversary of the publication of the Algol 60 Report
- October 2006, with Computer Conservation Society, The first 35+ years of IBM Hursley software
- November 2005, with Formal Aspects SG (BCS-FACS), Separation Logic