Delivered in the early 1970s and published in a university lecture series, this is Tony Hoare’s inaugural lecture as Professor of Computing Science at the Queen’s University of Belfast, a post to which he had been appointed in 1968.

In it, Hoare sets out what he takes computer science to be. He describes it as the art of programming a computer: of designing efficient and elegant methods to get a computer to solve problems, whether theoretical or practical, small or large, simple or complex. The emphasis on both efficiency and elegance is characteristic of his wider work.

The lecture reflects his effort to establish computer science as an academic discipline in its own right, distinct from the numerical computing tradition from which many departments had grown. It sets out the intellectual character and aims that he believed the young field should pursue.