Naur's main areas of inquiry were design, structure, and performance of computer programs and algorithms. He also pioneered in software engineering and software architecture. In his book Computing: A Human Activity (1992), which is a collection of his contributions to computer science, he rejected the formalist school of programming that views programming as a branch of mathematics. He did not like being associated with the Backus–Naur form (attributed to him by Donald Knuth) and said that he would prefer it to be called the Backus normal form.
Naur disliked the term computer science and suggested it be called datalogyordata science. The former term has been adopted in Denmark and Sweden as datalogi, while the latter term is now used for data analysis, including statistics and databases.
Since the middle 1960s, computer science has been practiced in Denmark under Peter Naur's term datalogy, the science of data processes. Starting at Regnecentralen and the University of Copenhagen, the Copenhagen Tradition of Computer Science has developed its own special characteristics by means of a close connection with applications and other fields of knowledge. The tradition is not least visible in the area of education. Comprehensive project activity is an integral part of the curriculum, thus presenting theory as an aspect of realistic solutions known primarily through actual experience.[5] Peter Naur early recognized the particular educational challenges presented by computer science. His innovations have shown their quality and vitality also at other universities. There is a close connection between computer science training as it has been formed at Copenhagen University, and the view of computer science which characterized Peter Naur's research.[6]
In later years, he was quite outspoken of the pursuit of science as a whole: Naur can possibly be identified with the empiricist school, that tells that one shall not seek deeper connections between things that manifest themselves in the world, but keep to the observable facts. He has attacked both certain strands of philosophy and psychology from this viewpoint. He was also developing a theory of human thinking which he called "Synapse-State Theory of Mental Life".[7]
Naur won the 2005 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) A.M. Turing Award for his work on defining the programming language ALGOL 60.[8] In particular, his role as editor of the influential Report on the Algorithmic Language ALGOL 60 with its pioneering use of BNF was recognized. Naur is the only Dane to have won the Turing Award.
Naur died on 3 January 2016 after a short illness.[9] His former home in Gentofte is now owned by the sociologist Claire Maxwell.
Numbers refer to the bibliography published by E. Sveinsdottir and E. Frøkjær.[citation needed] Naur published a large number of articles and chapters on astronomy, computer science, issues in society, classical music, psychology, and education.
66. Minor planet 51 Nemausa and the fundamental system of declinations, PhD thesis, 1957
^Naur, Peter (1985). "Peter Naur, Programming as Theory Building"(PDF). Computer Sciences: School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences. University of Wisconsin, Madison. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
