Lindsey Kuper
Here are two old handwritten papers by Robin Milner that @jer_gib helped me track down, and a few thoughts on them. https://decomposition.al/blog/2025/11/20/where-simulation-came-from/
Where “simulation” came from

decomposition ∘ al
Nov 20 at 9:45pmWeb
Show threadsreeNov 21
@lindsey @jer_gib I love a good library hunting story! I can't believe Oxford had a copy while Swansea didn't. If you are able to, please put them on archive.org.
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Show threadLindsey KuperNov 21
@sree @jer_gib Maybe Swansea does have them in a dusty file cabinet somewhere. But anyway, good idea to put them on archive.org.
Show threadJeremy GibbonsNov 21
@lindsey @sree Perhaps what Swansea lacks is the dusty filing cabinet rummager. (Bracket that as you will.)
Show threadsreeNov 21
@jer_gib @lindsey My observation is that little "luxuries" like that are what distinguish the top places from everybody else.
Show threadLindsey KuperNov 22
@sree @jer_gib Libraries are a human right, but librarians are a luxury?
Show threadCounting Is HardNov 24
@lindsey
It's possible that Hindley has a copy, but I don't think he has been on campus at all in my time here at Swansea. I can maybe ask John Tucker or one of the other computing history people to stick it on cronfa
Show threadJeremy GibbonsNov 24
@sree Thank you for that suggestion! The question from @lindsey sent me on my own dusty filing cabinet rummage, and I dug out our copy of "Design Considerations for a Functional Programming Language" by Rod Burstall from 1977. This is the paper that introduced NPL, a predecessor to Hope and hence to Haskell; it's an early published source for algebraic datatypes and pattern matching, and also for list comprehensions. When I have time, I intend to write a blog post about it. I couldn't find it anywhere else online, so it is now at https://archive.org/details/burstall-design-considerations-for-a-functional-programming-language
Burstall Design Considerations For A Functional Programming Language : Rod Burstall : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Scan of the paper Design Considerations for a Functional Programming Language by Rod Burstall, from the Proceedings of the Infotech State of the Art...

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Show threadRob RixNov 21
@lindsey @jer_gib !!
Show threadRon GarciaNov 21
@lindsey @jer_gib I never met Robin Milner, which makes me sad. His writing is so lucid, and suggests so much care in his thinking. He goes in the list of folks for whom I wish I had the time to read all their papers.
Show threadLindsey KuperNov 21

@rg9119 @jer_gib Yeah. I might just be a hopeless romantic, but especially with these handwritten papers, the care put into each word is evident.

My student Nathan pointed out how the phrase "we show how the real program simulates (in a precise sense) the ideal program that never got written" makes it stunningly clear which way simulation goes. I have always had to think, "wait, which thing simulates which, again?", but after reading that one phrase, I feel like I will never again forget.

Show threadSReyCoyrehourcqNov 22
@lindsey @jer_gib Interesting ! I push many references for early use of simulation in social science in my PhD. Jim Doran in archeology for example.. See https://theses.fr/2015PA010690
Une plateforme intégrée pour la construction et l'évaluation de modèles de simulation en géographie | Theses.fr

Depuis son adoption en géographie dans les années 1990, le méta-formalisme Agent pour la simulation est mobilisé avec succès et de façon croissante dans l’étude des systèmes dynamiques complexes que sont les villes. Peu de solutions techniques ont été avancées ces dernières années dans la littérature pour encadrer la construction et l’évaluation plus systématique de ces modèles de simulation. Au regard de cette insuffisance, et grâce au soutien d’un projet ERC et la formation d’une équipe pluridisciplinaire, ce sont deux objectifs simultanés qui sont avancés pour aborder et tenter de solutionner cette problématique. En s’appuyant sur la plateforme OpenMOLE développe ces dernières années à l’Institut des Systèmes complexes Paris-Ile-de-France et conçue pour démocratiser l’accès à des ressources de calculs distribués, il s’agit d’identifier, d’utiliser, ou de construire des outils et des méthodes innovantes pour la construction et l’exploration des modèles de simulation. Afin d’ancrer cette étude dans une réalité de pratiques, le choix est fait d’associer à ces développements la construction et l’exploration d’un tout nouveau modèle de simulation et des moyens de la simulation en géographie. Cette remise en contexte permet de réinterroger, et d’anticiper par la mise en œuvre d’outils et de méthodes que l’on espère plus adaptées, le rapport historique entretenu entre cette problématique ancienne de la « Validation » des modèles de simulation, centrale dans la justification des connaissances, avec la construction et l’exploration de modèle de simulation.

Show threadLindsey KuperNov 22
@SReyCoyrehourcq @jer_gib Thanks for sharing! To be clear, my post is about the history of specific use of the word "simulation" as the name of a particular mathematical technique, not the notion of simulation more broadly.