Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Halpern, Mark, 1931-
- Abstract:
- The Mark Halpern papers consists of technical papers and reports, conference proceedings, manuals, the majority of which were published by IBM, and periodicals that document programming languages and computer technologies from 1955 through 1990, with the bulk of the material from 1959 to 1973. Included in the collection are papers authored by Halpern and others about programming languages, computing, and military electronics.
- Extent:
- 8.75 Linear feet, 7 record cartons
- Language:
- and The collection is almost entirely in English. There is one Russian manuscript, which has an English translation.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of Item], [Date], Mark Halpern papers, Lot X3762.2007, Box [#], Folder [#], Catalog [#], Computer History Museum.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The Mark Halpern papers contain technical papers and reports, conference proceedings, manuals, and periodicals written and collected during Halpern’s career as a computer programmer at IBM’s Programming Research Department, Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, and Tymshare, Inc. Some of the earliest materials in the collection coincide with Halpern’s start at IBM in 1957, just after the release of Fortran and span the following decades until 1990. The bulk of the collection is comprised of technical papers, reports, and manuals related to specific programming languages and compilers: Fortran, ALGOL, SIMSCRIPT, Lisp 1.5, JOVIAL , and many others are represented. A smaller amount of material covers hardware and software technologies and products from Tandem Computers, Inc. and various IBM computers, including the IBM System/360 and IBM 7090. Also of interest are conference proceedings spanning the 1960s from IBM Programming Symposia, Association for Computing Machinery annual meetings, a RAND Computer Symposium, and the National Winter Convention on Military Electronics.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Mark Halpern was born on March 1, 1931 in New York, New York. He received a BA from City College of New York in 1951 and went on to pursue a PhD in English Language and Literature at Columbia University. However, in 1957, Halpern left his doctoral program at Columbia to begin work for IBM as a computer programmer. This transition occurred just months after IBM’s Programming Research Department announced the release of Fortran, and much of Halpern’s training and work at IBM involved working with this new programming language. In 1961, Halpern left IBM and began working at the Palo Alto Research Laboratories of Lockheed Missiles and Space Company (LMSC) as the Head of Programming Application Research. During his time at LCSC, Halpern made significant progress on XPOP, a macroprocessor-based programming system.
In 1967, Halpern was invited to speak at a conference held internally by IBM and was subsequently re-hired by the company as part of its Assembler Language Department and Mission in San Jose, California. After two years in this position, Halpern resigned from IBM for a second time in December of 1969 and worked in a number of brief jobs including developing software for Fairchild Camera & Instruments and working for Crocker National Bank in Data Processing & Systems Administration.
In 1972, Halpern started working at Tymshare, Inc., a company that provided public time-shared computer networking. Halpern stayed at Tymshare for almost six years working on the development of a "SuperFORTRAN" compiler with its vendor, the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). In 1978, Halpern left Tymshare for a job as compiler-department manager with the Western Development Center (WDC) of Datapoint. Halpern’s last job programming and managing software development started in 1983 with a company called Dialogue Systems (later renamed Enhansys).
After this job, Halpern shifted his career to technical writing, starting in 1987 as a technical writer for Tandem Computers, Inc. Since then, Halpern has devoted his career to writing and publishing works on various topics relating to technology and linguistics including two books, Binding Time: Six Studies in Programming Technology and Milieu (Ablex Publishers, 1990) and Language & Human Nature (Regent Press, 2006).
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Mark Halpern, 2006.
- Processing information:
-
Collection processed by Bo Doub and Kim Hayden, 2015.
- Arrangement:
-
The collection is arranged into 4 series:
Series 1, Technical papers and reports, 1957-1983
Series 2, Conference proceedings, 1961-1969
Series 3, Manuals, 1955-1987, bulk 1956-1972
Series 4, Periodicals, 1958-1990, bulk 1958-1974
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The collection is open for research.
- Terms of access:
-
The Computer History Museum (CHM) can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claims of the copyright holder. Requests for copying and permission to publish, quote, or reproduce any portion of the Computer History Museum’s collection must be obtained jointly from both the copyright holder (if applicable) and the Computer History Museum.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of Item], [Date], Mark Halpern papers, Lot X3762.2007, Box [#], Folder [#], Catalog [#], Computer History Museum.
- Location of this collection:
-
1401 Shoreline Blvd.Mountain View, CA 94043, US
- Contact:
- (650) 810-1010