A Science of Operations: Machines, Logic and the Invention of Programming (History of Computing) - Tapa blanda

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<p>Today, computers fulfil a dazzling array of roles, a flexibility resulting from the great range of programs<i> </i>that can be run on them.</p><p></p><p><i>A Science of Operations</i> examines the history of what we now call programming, defined not simply as <i>computer </i>programming, but more broadly as the definition of the steps involved in computations and other information-processing activities.  This unique perspective highlights how the history of programming is distinct from the history of the computer, despite the close relationship between the two in the 20^th century.  The book also discusses how the development of programming languages is related to disparate fields which attempted to give a mechanical account of language on the one hand, and a linguistic account of machines on the other.</p><p><b></b></p><p><b>Topics and features:</b></p><p></p><ul><li>Covers the early development of automatic computing, including Babbage’s “mechanical calculating engines” and the applications of punched-card technology</li><li>Examines the theoretical work of mathematical logicians such as Kleene, Church, Post and Turing, and the machines built by Zuse and Aiken in the 1930s and 1940s</li><li>Discusses the role that logic played in the development of the stored program computer</li><li>Describes the “standard model” of machine-code programming popularised by Maurice Wilkes</li><li>Presents the complete table for the universal Turing machine in the Appendices</li></ul><li>Investigates the rise of the initiatives aimed at developing higher-level programming notations, and how these came to be thought of as ‘languages’ that could be studied independently of a machine</li><li>Examines the importance of the Algol 60 language, and the framework it provided for studying the design of programming languages and the process of software development</li><li>Explores the early development of object-oriented languages, with a focus on the Smalltalk project</li><p>This fascinating text offers a new viewpoint for historians of science and technology, as well as for the general reader.  The historical narrative builds the story in a clear and logical fashion, roughly following chronological order.</p>