Programming Research Group

The Programming Research Group (PRG) was part of the Oxford University Computing Laboratory (OUCL) in Oxford, England, along with the Numerical Analysis Group, until OUCL became the Department of Computer Science in 2011.

[4] The PRG ethos is summed up by the following quotation from Strachey, found and promulgated by Tony Hoare after he arrived at the PRG: It has long been my personal view that the separation of practical and theoretical work is artificial and injurious.

Most of the abstract mathematical and theoretical work is sterile because it has no point of contact with real computing.

[1] The PRG was a centre of excellence in the field of formal methods,[6] playing a leading role in the development of the Z notation (initiated by a visit of Jean-Raymond Abrial) and CSP (together with the associated Occam programming language).

It won Queen's Awards with IBM and Inmos for work in this area.