Computer science

The early foundations of what would become computer science predate the invention of the modern digital computer. Machines for calculating fixed numerical tasks, such as the abacus, have existed since antiquity. Wilhelm Schickard built the first mechanical calculator in 1623.^[4] Charles Babbage designed a difference engine in Victorian times (between 1837 and 1901)^[5] helped by Ada Lovelace.^[6] Around 1900, the IBM corporation sold punch-card machines.^[7] However, all of these machines were constrained to perform a single task, or at best some subset of all possible tasks.

During the 1940s, as newer and more powerful computing machines were developed, the term computer came to refer to the machines rather than their human predecessors. As it became clear that computers could be used for more than just mathematical calculations, the field of computer science broadened to study computation in general. Computer science began to be established as a distinct academic discipline in the 1960s, with the creation of the first computer science departments and degree programs.^[8] Since practical computers became available, many applications of computing have become distinct areas of study in their own right.

Many initially believed it impossible that "computers themselves could actually be a scientific field of study" (Levy 1984, p. 11), though it was in the "late fifties" (Levy 1984, p.11) that it gradually became accepted among the greater academic population. It is the now well-known IBM brand that formed part of the computer science revolution during this time. 'IBM' (short for International Business Machines) released the IBM 704 and later the IBM 709 computers, which were widely used during the exploration period of such devices. "Still, working with the IBM [computer] was frustrating...if you had misplaced as much as one letter in one instruction, the program would crash, and you would have to start the whole process over again" (Levy 1984, p.13). During the late 1950s, the computer science discipline was very much in its developmental stages, and such issues were commonplace.

Time has seen significant improvements in the useability and effectiveness of computer science technology. Modern society has seen a significant shift from computers being used solely by experts or professionals to a more widespread user base. By the 1990s, computers became accepted as being the norm within everyday life. During this time data entry was a primary component of the use of computers, many preferring to streamline their business practices through the use of a computer. This also gave the additional benefit of removing the need of large amounts of documentation and file records which consumed much-needed physical space within offices.

[edit] Major achievements

Despite its relatively short history as a formal academic discipline, computer science has made a number of fundamental contributions to science and society. These include:

[edit] Relationship with other fields

Despite its name, a significant amount of computer science does not involve the study of computers themselves. Because of this, several alternative names have been proposed. Danish scientist Peter Naur suggested the term datalogy, to reflect the fact that the scientific discipline revolves around data and data treatment, while not necessarily involving computers. The first scientific institution to use the term was the Department of Datalogy at the University of Copenhagen, founded in 1969, with Peter Naur being the first professor in datalogy. The term is used mainly in the Scandinavian countries. Also, in the early days of computing, a number of terms for the and practitioners of the field of computing were suggested in the Communications are of the ACM—turingineer, turologist, flow-charts-man, applied meta-mathematician, and applied epistemologist.^[14] Three months later in the same journal, comptologist was suggested, followed next year by hypologist.^[15] Recently the term computics has been suggested.^[16] Informatik was a term used in Europe with more frequency.

The renowned computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra stated, "Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." The design and deployment of computers and computer systems is generally considered the province of disciplines other than computer science. For example, the study of computer hardware is usually considered part of computer engineering, while the study of commercial computer systems and their deployment is often called information technology or information systems. Computer science is sometimes criticized as being insufficiently scientific, a view espoused in the statement "Science is to computer science as hydrodynamics is to plumbing", credited to Stan Kelly-Bootle^[17] and others. However, there has been much cross-fertilization of ideas between the various computer-related disciplines. Computer science research has also often crossed into other disciplines, such as cognitive science, economics, mathematics, physics (see quantum computing), and linguistics.

Computer science is considered by some to have a much closer relationship with mathematics than many scientific disciplines.^[8] Early computer science was strongly influenced by the work of mathematicians such as Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing, and there continues to be a useful interchange of ideas between the two fields in areas such as mathematical logic, category theory, domain theory, and algebra.

The relationship between computer science and software engineering is a contentious issue, which is further muddied by disputes over what the term "software engineering" means, and how computer science is defined. David Parnas, taking a cue from the relationship between other engineering and science disciplines, has claimed that the principal focus of computer science is studying the properties of computation in general, while the principal focus of software engineering is the design of specific computations to achieve practical goals, making the two separate but complementary disciplines.^[18]

The academic, political, and funding aspects of computer science tend to have roots as to whether a department in the U.S. formed with either a mathematical emphasis or an engineering emphasis. In general, electrical engineering-based computer science departments have tended to succeed as computer science and/or engineering departments.^{[citation needed]} Computer science departments with a mathematics emphasis and with a numerical orientation consider alignment computational science. Both types of departments tend to make efforts to bridge the field educationally if not across all research.

[edit] Fields of computer science

Computer science searches for concepts and formal proofs to explain and describe computational systems of interest. As with all sciences, these theories can then be utilised to synthesize practical engineering applications, which in turn may suggest new systems to be studied and analysed. While the ACM Computing Classification System can be used to split computer science up into different topics of fields, a more descriptive breakdown follows:

[edit] Mathematical foundations

[edit] Theory of computation

[edit] Algorithms and data structures

[edit] Programming languages and compilers

[edit] Concurrent, parallel, and distributed systems

[edit] Software engineering

[edit] System architecture

[edit] Communications

[edit] Databases

[edit] Artificial intelligence

[edit] Visual rendering (or Computer graphics)

[edit] Human-Computer Interaction

[edit] Scientific computing

[edit] Didactics of computer science/informatics

The subfield didactics of computer science focuses on cognitive approaches of developing competencies of computer science and specific strategies for analysis, design, implementation and evaluation of excellent lessons in computer science.

[edit] Computer science education

Other colleges and universities, as well as secondary schools and vocational programs that teach computer science, emphasize the practice of advanced computer programming rather than the theory of algorithms and computation in their computer science curricula. Such curricula tend to focus on those skills that are important to workers entering the software industry. The practical aspects of computer programming are often referred to as software engineering. However, there is a lot of disagreement over what the term "software engineering" actually means, and whether it is the same thing as programming.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ "Computer science is the study of information" Department of Computer and Information Science, Guttenberg Information Technologies
^ "Computer science is the study of computation." Computer Science Department, College of Saint Benedict, Saint John's University
^ "Computer Science is the study of all aspects of computer systems, from the theoretical foundations to the very practical aspects of managing large software projects." Massey University
^ Nigel Tout (2006). "Calculator Timeline". Vintage Calculator Web Museum. Retrieved on 2006-09-18.
^ "Science Museum - Introduction to Babbage". Retrieved on 2006-09-24.
^ "A Selection and Adaptation From Ada's Notes found in "Ada, The Enchantress of Numbers," by Betty Alexandra Toole Ed.D. Strawberry Press, Mill Valley, CA". Retrieved on 2006-05-04.
^ "IBM Punch Cards in the U.S. Army". Retrieved on 2006-09-24.
^ ^a ^b Denning, P.J. (2000). "Computer Science: The Discipline". Encyclopedia of Computer Science.
^ ^a ^b David Kahn, The Codebreakers, 1967, ISBN 0-684-83130-9.
^ Constable, R.L. (March 2000). "Computer Science: Achievements and Challenges circa 2000".
^ Abelson, H.; G.J. Sussman with J.Sussman (1996). Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, 2nd Ed., MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-01153-0. “The computer revolution is a revolution in the way we think and in the way we express what we think. The essence of this change is the emergence of what might best be called procedural epistemology — the study of the structure of knowledge from an imperative point of view, as opposed to the more declarative point of view taken by classical mathematical subjects.”
^ ^a ^b http://www.cis.cornell.edu/Dean/Presentations/Slides/bgu.pdf
^ Black box traders are on the march The Telegraph, August 26, 2006
^ Communications of the ACM 1(4):p.6
^ Communications of the ACM 2(1):p.4
^ IEEE Computer 28(12):p.136
^ Computer Language, October 1990
^ Parnas, David L. (1998). "Software Engineering Programmes are not Computer Science Programmes". Annals of Software Engineering 6: 19–37. doi:10.1023/A:1018949113292. , p. 19: "Rather than treat software engineering as a subfield of computer science, I treat it as an element of the set, {Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, ....}."

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