What Is a Procedure?

1. The humorous examples from the "What Is an Algorithm?" website

2. Cleland, Carol E. (1993), "Is the Church-Turing Thesis True?" Minds and Machines 3(3) (August): 283-312. [PDF]
   • Here's a reply, to which Cleland 1995, below, is a rejoinder:
     Horsten, Leon; & Roelants, Herman (1995), "The Church-Turing Thesis and Effective Mundane Procedures", Minds and Machines 5(1): 1-8.

   • Also see Daly 2010, below.

3. Cleland, Carol E. (1995), "Effective Procedures and Computable Functions", Minds and Machines 5(1): 9-23.
   Also see these replies:
   • Israel, David (2002), "Reflections on Gödel's and Gandy's Reflections on Turing's Thesis", Minds and Machines 12(2) (May): 181-201.
   • Seligman, Jeremy (2002), "The Scope of Turing's Analysis of Effective Procedures", Minds and Machines 12(2) (May): 203-220.

4. Farkas, David K. (1999), "The Logical and Rhetorical Construction of Procedural Discourse" [PDF], Technical Communication 46(1) (February): 42-54.
   • An interesting look at how to write procedures (i.e., instructions), from the point of view of a technical writer.

5. Cleland, Carol E. (2001), "Recipes, Algorithms, and Programs", Minds and Machines 11(2) (May): 219-237.

6. Shapiro, Stuart C. (2001), "Computer Science: The Study of Procedures" [PDF]

7. Cleland, Carol E. (guest ed.) (2002), Special Issue on Effective Procedures, Minds and Machines 12(2) (May).
   • Click on "Special Issue" above to get full table of contents.

   • Includes the following paper:
     Cleland, Carol E. (2002), "On Effective Procedures", Minds and Machines 12(2) (May): 159-179.

8. Cleland, Carol E. (2004), "The Concept of Computability", Theoretical Computer Science 317: 209-225.
   Also see:
   • Does a function in mathematics change anything?

9. Preston, Beth (2006), "Ch.1: The Centralized Control Model of Production", from Preston, Beth (forthcoming), The Stuff of Life: Towards a Philosophy of Material Culture.

   • Also see Daly 2010, below.

   • 
     Another nice follow-up to Preston's chapter is:
     Petroski, Henry (2010), "Occasional Design", American Scientist 98(1) (January-February): 16–19.
     • "An everyday challenge provides lessons in the processes of planning and execution"

       illustrations:
       

     • diagram of chimney cap
     • photo of house
     • photo of completed chimney cap

10. Daly, Ian (2010), "Just Like Mombot Used to Make", NY Times, Dining section (24 February): D1, D5.
    • "Fear not, humans, these robots are here to be our friends. To prove it, they serve you food."
    • Interesting reading in connection with what Cleland 1993 and Preston 2006 have to say about the computability of recipes.