Richard Bornat (born 1944), is a British author and researcher in the field of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

. He is also professor of

Computer programming Computer programming is the process of performing a particular computation (or more generally, accomplishing a specific computing result), usually by designing and building an executable computer program. Programming involves tasks such as ana ...

Middlesex University Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated MDX) is a public research university in Hendon, northwest London, England. The name of the university is taken from its location within the historic county boundaries ...

. Previously he was at

Queen Mary, University of London , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...

Research

Bornat's research interests includes ''program proving'' in

separation logic In computer science, separation logic is an extension of Hoare logic, a way of reasoning about programs. It was developed by John C. Reynolds, Peter O'Hearn, Samin Ishtiaq and Hongseok Yang, drawing upon early work by Rod Burstall. The assertion l ...

. His focus is on the proofs themselves; as opposed to any logical underpinnings. Much of the work involves discovering ways to state the properties of independent modules, in a manner that makes their composition into useful systems conducive. Bornat (in conjunction with Bernard Sufrin of the

Oxford University Computing Laboratory The Department of Computer Science is the computer science department of the University of Oxford, England, which is part of the university's Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division, University of Oxford, Mathematical, Physical and Life ...

) developed

Jape Jape is a synonym for a practical joke. Jape or JAPE may also refer to: * Jape (band), an Irish electronic/rock band * JAPE (linguistics), a transformation language widely used in natural language processing * JAPE, an automated pun generator * J ...

, a proof calculator; he is involved in research on the usability of this tool for exploration of novel proofs. Richard Bornat's PhD students have included

Samson Abramsky Samson Abramsky (born 12 March 1953) is Professor of Computer Science at University College London. He was previously the Christopher Strachey Professor of Computing at the University of Oxford, from 2000 to 2021. He has made contributions to t ...

in the early 1980s. In 2004, one of Bornat's students developed an aptitude test to ''"divide people up into programmers and non-programmers before they ever come into contact with programming."'' The test was first given to a group of students in 2005 during an experiment on the use of mental models in programming. In 2008 and 2014, Bornat partially retracted some of the claims, impugning its validity as a test for programming capability.

Publications

Bornat published a book entitled ''"Understanding and Writing Compilers: A Do It Yourself Guide"'', which is regarded as one of the most extensive resources on

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that ...

development. Although it has been out of print for some time, he has now made it available as a
online edition
Other publications from Bornat include: * R. Bornat; 1987; ''Programming from First Principles'';

Prentice Hall International Series in Computer Science Prentice Hall International Series in Computer Science was a series of books on computer science published by Prentice Hall. The series' founding editor was Tony Hoare. Richard Bird subsequently took over editing the series. Many of the books in t ...

; . * Richard Bornat and Harold Thimbleby; 1989; ''The life and times of ded, display editor;'' in J.B. Long & A. Whitefield (eds); Cognitive Ergonomics and Human-Computer Interaction;

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

; pp. 225–255. * Richard Bornat and Bernard Sufrin;1999; ''Animating Formal Proof at the Surface: The Proof Calculator;''

The Computer Journal ''The Computer Journal'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering computer science and information systems. Established in 1958, it is one of the oldest computer science research journals. It is published by Oxford University Press on beha ...

; Vol. 42; no. 3; pp. 177–192. * Aczel, J. C., Fung, P., Bornat, R., Oliver, M., O'Shea, T., & Sufrin, B.; 1999; ''Influences of Software Design on Formal Reasoning;'' in Brewster, S., Cawsey, A. & Cockton, G. (Eds.) Proceedings of IFIP TC.13 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction INTERACT '99; Vol. 2; pp. 3–4; Swindon, UK,

British Computer Society Sir Maurice Wilkes served as the first President of BCS in 1957 BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, known as the British Computer Society until 2009, is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in infor ...

; . * R. Bornat; 2000; ''Proving Pointer Programs in Hoare Logic;'' in Backhouse & Oliveira (eds) MPC 2000;

LNCS ''Lecture Notes in Computer Science'' is a series of computer science books published by Springer Science+Business Media since 1973. Overview The series contains proceedings, post-proceedings, monographs, and Festschrifts. In addition, tutorials, ...

1837; pp. 102–126. * C. Calcagno, P. O'Hearn, R. Bornat; 2002; ''Program Logic and Equivalence in the Presence of Garbage Collection.'' To appear in ''

Theoretical Computer Science Theoretical computer science (TCS) is a subset of general computer science and mathematics that focuses on mathematical aspects of computer science such as the theory of computation, lambda calculus, and type theory. It is difficult to circumsc ...

'' special issue on ''Foundations''.

References

External links

Richard Bornat (home page)

Page at Middlesex University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bornat, Richard 1944 births English computer scientists English non-fiction writers Academics of Queen Mary University of London Academics of Middlesex University Formal methods people Living people English male non-fiction writers