A Brief History of Computing / Edition 2

by Gerard O'Regan

Overview

This lively and fascinating text traces the key developments in computation – from 3000 B.C. to the present day – in an easy-to-follow and concise manner. Topics and features: ideal for self-study, offering many pedagogical features such as chapter-opening key topics, chapter introductions and summaries, exercises, and a glossary; presents detailed information on major figures in computing, such as Boole, Babbage, Shannon, Turing, Zuse and Von Neumann; reviews the history of software engineering and of programming languages, including syntax and semantics; discusses the progress of artificial intelligence, with extension to such key disciplines as philosophy, psychology, linguistics, neural networks and cybernetics; examines the impact on society of the introduction of the personal computer, the World Wide Web, and the development of mobile phone technology; follows the evolution of a number of major technology companies, including IBM, Microsoft and Apple.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781447123583
Publisher:	Springer London
Publication date:	03/06/2012
Edition description:	2nd ed. 2012
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Dr. Gerard O’Regan is a CMMI software process improvement consultant at SQC Consulting, and a visiting lecturer at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, Malaysia. He is the author of the Springer titles Introduction to Software Process Improvement, Mathematical Approaches to Software Quality and A Practical Approach to Software Quality.

Table of Contents

Computing in Early Civilisations.- What is a Computer?- Early Computers.- Developments in the 1950s to 1970s.- Revolutions in the 1980s and 1990s.- IBM.- Technology Companies.- The Internet Revolution.- History of Programming Languages.- History of Software Engineering.- People in Computing.- Foundations (Boole and Babbage).- Claude Shannon.- Alan Turing.- Artificial Intelligence.

Editorial Reviews

From the reviews of the second edition:

“The book under review … provides a succint (about 250 pages) reference book to computing topics (ranging from history to people to basic concepts). … In its succint presentation the book has several strengths: It deals with pioneers (like Zuse) and historical issues … . The book aims at the general reader or student with some general mathematical background knowledge and some experience with computers who needs a short offline encyclopedia.” (Manuel Bremer, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1244, 2012)

From the Publisher