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A Brief History of Computing

  • Textbook
  • © 2008

Overview

Editors:
  1. Gerard O’Regan

    1. Mallow, Co. Cork, Ireland

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  • Offers a comprehensive, concise and user-friendly account of the history of computing
  • Traces the beginnings of computation 3000 B.C. through to modern times
  • Includes helpful pedagogical elements such as exercises and chapter summaries
  • Does not require studies in computer science in order to be understood and appreciated
  • Excellent 'general read' about computing's dynamic history
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-XIX
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  2. Early Civilisations

    • Gerard O’Regan
    Pages 1-25

  3. Foundations

    • Gerard O’Regan
    Pages 26-72

  4. Computer Programming Languages

    • Gerard O’Regan
    Pages 73-102

  5. Software Engineering

    • Gerard O’Regan
    Pages 103-147

  6. Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems

    • Gerard O’Regan
    Pages 149-177

  7. The Internet Revolution

    • Gerard O’Regan
    Pages 179-201

  8. Famous Technology Companies

    • Gerard O’Regan
    Pages 203-233

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 235-245
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Keywords

About this book

Overview The objective of this book is to provide an introduction into some of the key topics in the history of computing. The computing eld is a vast area and a truly comp- hensive account of its history would require several volumes. The aims of this book are more modest, and its goals are to give the reader a avour of some of the key topics and events in the history of computing. It is hoped that this will stimulate the interested reader to study the more advanced books and articles available. The history of computing has its origins in the dawn of civilization. Early hunter gatherer societies needed to be able to perform elementary calculations such as counting and arithmetic. As societies evolved into towns and communities there was a need for more sophisticated calculations. This included primitive accounting to determine the appropriate taxation to be levied as well as the development of geometry to enable buildings, templates and bridges to be constructed. Our account commenceswith the contributions of the Egyptians, and Babylonians. It moves on to the foundationalwork done by Boole and Babbage in the nineteenth century, and to the importantwork on Boolean Logicand circuit design doneby Claude Shannon in the 1930s. The theoretical work done by Turing on computability is considered as well as work done by von Neumann and others on the fundamental architecture for computers.

Reviews

From the reviews:

"The history of computing is finding its way into the college curricula more often, and therefore the need for an accessible text on the subject is becoming greater. O’Regan’s book certainly merits careful consideration as an undergraduate text, as it has much to offer… Many books on computer science history emphasize only one or two areas – usually hardware development and the commercial history. This book is much broader in scope… it is more suitable for an undergraduate course than most other books… The book is a good size; it is not too big physically, and not too detailed for an undergraduate treatment or for a general reader who wants an overview that can be easily digested over a rainy weekend… O’Regan’s work manages to be both brief and broad in scope – a difficult task. This makes the book a valuable read and a good textbook." (M.D. Derk, ACM Computing Reviews)

"In summary, I believe this text delivers on its aim of being an introduction tothe topic for a technical audience. The book’s main strength is the inclusion of software engineering approaches such as CMMI. This helps communicate a message that ‘computing’ is not just about calculation or data processing, but a complex topic that intersects with the history of business delivery, quality standards, and process governance." (Charles Care, BSHM Bulletin, Vol. 24, 2009)

Editors and Affiliations

  • Mallow, Co. Cork, Ireland

    Gerard O’Regan

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