[Ads-l] Antedating: 'queue' (data structure in computing, OED 1963)

[Daphne Preston-Kendal]

PS It appears that ‘queues’ as a phenomenon were of interest to statisticians some years before the term became relevant in computing particularly. <https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=0&q=queue&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&as_yhi=1962>

> On 25 Nov 2025, at 19:52, Daphne Preston-Kendal <dpk at nonceword.org> wrote:
> 
> These statements will add the specified entity to the set at the head or tail of the queue respectively, or will remove it from the set.
> 1962 J. N. Buxton & J. G. Laski ‘Control and simulation language’ in The Computer Journal 5 (3): 195/2.
> 
> 
> The main features discussed are the ordering of a queue of jobs awaiting execution
> 1962 D. J. Howarth, P. D. Jones & M. T. Wyld ‘The Atlas scheduling system’ in The Computer Journal 5 (3): 238/2.
> 
> 
> These probably confirm what one might suspect from the sense development, that ‘queue’ as a computer science term, while international today, originated in Britain. (A later article by Laski says he was at Colchester, and a later one by Buxton puts him at the University of London; the Atlas system was developed at the University of Manchester.)
> 
> 
> Daphne
> 

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