Prose as a Model of Computation

Mathematics has been the basis of computation since the beginning of computer science and the algebraic expression and functional notation has been the basic model of computation. This basis in effect limits programming to a relatively few highly trained individuals. However, today computers are ubiquitous and there is a great need for allowing less trained people to program. Some of the problems with the FORmula TRANslation era are that 1) for non-technical and technical people alike, programs written in mathematical notation are hard to understand; 2) it is not particularly applicable to non-numerical applications such as bioinformatics and data bases; 3) it depends on pointers for efficient execution limiting hardware designs; 4) it is inherently sequential and handles data parallel, parallel to scalar extraction and scalar to parallel broadcasting computation poorly and 5) it can not be easily verbalized, requiring auxiliary equipment such as keyboards and mice for input, limiting its use. This paper describes how some of the features of natural language prose, such as verbs, nouns, pronouns, noun phrases, and prepositional phrases can be used for programming. This model is suitable for all types of computers, but is especially appropriate for SIMD multicore chips. A brief introduction to Plain English using the Minimal Spanning Tree algorithm is included.