Data structures that generalize rectangular arrays
Samuel A. Hoffman · 1962
Three problems associated with structured data sets -- description, allocation, and retrieval -- are briefly considered. The first is a problem in describing data to a compiler in a formal manner that will allow the compiler program to allocate storage and retrieve data when the data is referenced. The second is the problem of providing contiguous storage for the data set in such a way that when suitably described pieces of the data are required at run time, the positions of these pieces of data relative to some base will be determinable. The third problem is that of referencing or describing subsets of the data set.