Overview
- Offers a comprehensive account of the history of computing
- Traces the beginnings of computation from 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
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About this book
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.
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Table of contents (15 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
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)
Authors and Affiliations
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.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: A Brief History of Computing
Authors: Gerard O'Regan
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2359-0
Publisher: Springer London
eBook Packages: Computer Science, Computer Science (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag London Limited 2012
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4471-2358-3Published: 14 March 2012
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4471-2359-0Published: 05 March 2012
Edition Number: 2
Number of Pages: XXIV, 264
Topics: History of Computing, Popular Science, general, History of Science