Richard Bornat

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Richard Bornat (born 1944), is a noted British author and researcher in the field of computer science. He is also professor of Computer programming at Middlesex University. Previously he was at Queen Mary, University of London.

1 Research
2 Publications
3 Controversy
4 External links

[edit] Research

Bornat's research interests includes program proving in separation logic. 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) developed Jape, a proof calculator; he is involved in research on the usability of this tool for exploration of novel proofs.

[edit] 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 development. Other publications from Bornat include:

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; pp. 225–255.
Richard Bornat and Bernard Sufrin;1999; Animating Formal Proof at the Surface: The {Jape} Proof Calculator; The Computer Journal; 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; ISBN 1-902505-19-0.
R. Bornat; 2000; Proving Pointer Programs in Hoare Logic; in Backhouse & Oliviera (eds) MPC 2000; LNCS 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 special issue on Foundations.

[edit] Controversy

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. At the end of the experiment, Bornat delivered a talk entitled "Dividing the Sheep from the Goats". In the seminar, he claimed the outcome of the experiment supports the notion that teaching computer programming to those with an aptitude for it is unnecessary, and teaching those without such aptitude is an exercise in futility.

In January 2006, he was suspended for personal attacks on a senior female colleague. In a mass e-mail he sent to fellow faculty members, Bornat also pilloried another associate for his misuse of an apostrophe. On his personal page, he claims his actions were spurred on by an adverse drug reaction to the antidepressant medication he was taking. In April 2006, he was successfully defended by Prof. Jawed Siddiqi in a university hearing and his suspension was subsequently lifted. (See Wassup?.)