Overview
- 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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About this book
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: A Brief History of Computing
Editors: Gerard O’Regan
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84800-084-1
Publisher: Springer London
eBook Packages: Computer Science, Computer Science (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag London 2008
eBook ISBN: 978-1-84800-084-1Published: 01 February 2008
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XX, 252
Number of Illustrations: 72 b/w illustrations
Topics: Theory of Computation, History of Computing, History of Science, Popular Science, general