A Brief History of Computing

This useful and lively text provides a comprehensive introduction to the key topics in the history of computing, in an easy-to-follow and concise manner. It covers the significant areas and events in the field - from the ancient Egyptians through to the present day - and both gives the reader a flavour of the history and stimulates further study in the subject.
Features:
* Ideal for undergraduate courses, it offers many pedagogical features such as chapter-opening key topics, chapter introductions, exercises, chapter summaries, glossary, etc.
* Offers detailed information on major figures in computing, such as Boole, Babbage, Shannon , Turing and Von Neumann
* Includes a history of programming languages, including syntax and semantics
* Presents an overview of the history of software engineering
* Discusses the progress of artificial intelligence, with extension to such key disciplines as philosophy, psychology, linguistics, neural networks and cybernetics
* Examines the history of the Internet revolution, World Wide Web and Dot-Com Bubble
* Follows the evolution of a number of major technology companies such as IBM, Motorola and Microsoft
Focusing on the fundamental areas in the computing field, this clearly written and broad-ranging text will capture the attention of the reader and greatly benefit computer science students. In addition, it is suitable for self-study, and will also be of interest to the more casual reader.
Dr Gerard O'Regan is a CMMI software process improvement consultant with research interests including software quality and software process improvement; mathematical approaches to software quality; and the history of computing. He has published A Practical Approach to Software Quality and Mathematical Approaches to Software Quality.
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