Computer science

“ However, when mathematics becomes too complex, the mathematician puts aside his pencil and paper and turns to an electronic computer. Since computers can carry out mathematical calculations from 100 to 1,000,000 times as fast as a human being, they are necessary today and will be essential tomorrow.
The much-publicized electronic computers are vital in modern science, but they can’t add two and two without trained personnel to operate them. ”

“ The Designing Computer It seems strange that the computer was a bookkeeper and clerk for years before anyone seriously considered that it might be an engineer as well, yet the men who themselves designed the computer were loath to use it in their other work. Part of this resistance stems from the high premium placed on the creativity of research and design work. The engineer uses science in his work, to be sure, but he professes to use it as an artist, or with the personal touch of, say, a brewmaster. ”

“ Early courses were aimed at those already in industry, in an attempt to catch them up with the technology of computer-oriented systems in business and science. As special courses, 220many of these carried a high tuition fee. Next came the teaching of professors and deans of engineering institutions in techniques of computer education for undergraduates. ”

“ Popularization of information technology
Computer technology has traditionally been the sole domain of a "techie" elite, fluent in both complex programming languages and in English — the universal language of science and technology. ”

“ It is recommended that the AO be distributed nationwide to the departments of industrial engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, mathematics, physics, astronomy, business, philosophy, law, and economics in colleges and universities. ”

“ If we do not interact with the computer via a primary programming language (Assembler or machine language) , I believe that it is impossible to find the principle of work of the computer either from in- or outside of it. ”

“ The Logical Algebra We come now to another most important reason for the effectiveness of the digital computer; the reason that makes it the “logical” choice for not only mathematics but thinking as well. For the digital computer and logic go hand in hand. ”

“ Sometimes program bumming became competitive, a macho contest to prove oneself so much in command of the system that one could recognize elegant shortcuts to shave off an instruction or two, or, better yet, rethink the whole problem and devise a new algorithm which would save a whole block of instructions. (An algorithm is a specific procedure which one can apply to solve a complex computer problem; it is sort of a mathematical skeleton key.) ”

“ Programmers are likely to be men—or women, for there is no sex barrier in this new profession—who revel in symbolic logic and heuristic or “hunch” reasoning. Without a program, the computer is an impressively elaborate and frighteningly expensive contraption which cannot tell one number from another. The day may come when the mathematician can say to the machine, “Prove Fermat’s last theorem for me, please,” or the engineer simply wish aloud for a ceramic material that melts at 15,000° C. and weighs slightly less than Styrofoam. ”

“ Thus, what is desired is drastically to increase the rate of interaction between the programmer and the computer without large economic loss and also to make each interaction more meaningful by extensive and complex system programming to assist in the man-computer communication. ”

“ To further compound excuses for the foot-dragging engineer, there was a difference in needs in payroll computation and scientific mathematical calculation. Commercial computers are designed for a high rate of input and output, with a relatively slow arithmetic going on inside. The engineer, on the other hand, might need only several minutes of computer time, but it could take him a couple of days to put the problem into a form the machine could digest. ”

“ By means of advanced technologies, computers can recognize patterns, analyze text, and model concepts. Furthermore, computers can complete these processes faster with more sources and with greater precision than scholars who must rely on manual interpretation of data. But if scholars are to use computers for these processes, source materials must be in a form amenable to computer-assisted analysis. For this reason many scholars, once they have identified the sources that are key to their research, are converting them to machine-readable form. ”

“ They are the result of the labor of philosophers, logicians, mathematicians, and finally technologists, who changed calculation from a physical to a cognitive practical experience. Boolean logic, binary numbers, and electronic gates are mediating elements that enhance the effectiveness of calculation by high orders of magnitude. As things stand today, computer technology has led to myriad specialties: design and production of chips; information processing at various levels; manufacture of components and their integration as machines; networking; visualization techniques ”

“ Don't underestimate the amount of time and effort it will require to collect data, make sure it's accurate, enter the data, and run the analyses.
It's important to consider how user-friendly the computer is, and how much the computer's software will do to guide you through the analysis.
A computer will do calculations very quickly, perhaps saving hours of laborious figuring. A computer will store information from one time period to the next, and recalculate alternatives quickly. By making the information available, it will help you identify strong and weak points in your operation. ”

“ With a problem of complex nature, such as one involving the firing of a space vehicle, programmers soon learned they were spending hours, or even days, on a problem which the computer proceeded to zip through in minutes or seconds. ”

“ If a machine can read, why can’t it understand verbal input 56as well? Lazy computer engineers have pushed this idea, and the simplest input system of all is well on the way to success. Computers today can recognize numbers and a few words, and the Japanese have a typewriter that prints out the words spoken to it! These linguistic advances that electronic computers are making are great for everyone, except perhaps the glamorized programmer, a new breed of mathematical logician whose services have been demanded in the last few years. ”

“ A computer, however, doesn’t replace the mathematician any more than an adding machine replaces an accountant. The mathematician must help to design the computer, understand what material to store in its memory banks, know how to feed problems into it, and be able to read the results that come out. ”

“ Modern, high-speed computers, such as the 1401, are marvelous electronic instruments, but they represent only portions of data processing systems. Well-tested programming languages for communication with computers must accompany the systems. It is through these languages that the computer itself is used to perform many of the tedious functions that the programmer would otherwise have to perform. A few minutes of computer time in translating the program can be equal to many, many hours of staff time in writing instructions coded in the language of the computer. ”

“ Making up the program for the teaching machine is a difficult task and requires the services of technical expert, psychologist, and programmer. An English-like language is used in preparing a CLASS program for the computer. Put on magnetic tape, the program goes into the memory of the computer and is called out by proper responses from the student as he progresses through the lesson. ”

“ Algorithm - A procedure for accomplishing a given result by proceeding on a logical step-by-step basis. Computer programs and N/C routines for machine tools are developed this way.
Analog - Computers of this type are designed to respond and control continuous process operations such as flows, temperatures, or other infinitely variable-type operations. Digital computers process only discrete digital data.
Automatic - Functioning in a predefined manner with a minimum of reprogrammability; possesses only limited process information closure. ”

“ The digital computer, then, is not merely a counting machine, but a decision-maker as well. It can decide whether something should be added, subtracted, or ignored. Its logical manipulations can by clever circuitry be extended from AND to OR, NOT, and NOR. It thus can solve not only arithmetic, but also the problems of logic concerning foxes, goats, and cabbages, or cannibals and missionaries that give us human beings so much trouble when we encounter them. ”

“ Chances are that in the long run true logic will prevail, and instead of us confusing the computer it will manage instead to organize our grammar into the more efficient tool it should be. With proper programming, the computer may even be able to retain sufficient humor and nuance to make talk interesting and colorful as well as utilitarian. ”

“ But a computer is like, ten times more complicated, and it will dance to any tune you play. You can learn to write simple code in an afternoon. Start with a language like Python, which was written to give non-programmers an easier way to make the machine dance to their tune. Even if you only write code for one day, one afternoon, you have to do it. Computers can control you or they can lighten your work -- if you want to be in charge of your machines, you have to learn to write code. ”

“ The Academic Computer It was inevitable that the computer invade, or perhaps “infiltrate” is the better word, our education system. Mark I and ENIAC were university-born and -bred, and early research work was done by many institutions using computers. A logical development was to teach formal courses in using the computer. While application of the machine in mathematical and scientific work came first, its application to business and to the training of executives for such use of the computer was soon recognized. ”

“ We can begin to investigate the question of computer intelligence by again looking up a definition. The word “compute” means literally to think, or reckon, with. Early computers such as counting sticks, the abacus, and the adding machine are obviously something man thinks with. Even though we may know the multiplication tables, we find it easier and safer to use a mechanical device to remember and even to perform operations for us. ”

“ The huge amounts of information—books, articles, speeches, 14and records of all sorts—are beginning to make it absolutely necessary for an efficient information retrieval system. Many cases have been noted in which much time and effort are spent on a project which has already been completed but then has become lost in the welter of literature crammed into libraries. The computer is a logical device for such work; in a recent test such a machine scored 86 per cent in its efforts to locate specific data on file. Trained workers rated only 38 per cent in the same test! ”

“ Given the exciting prospects for computer-based advanced automation in future missions, a program for more efficient, effective, and timely software development, management, and maintanance is mandatory. Principal software requirements are in the areas of programming languages, the software development environment, software validation, algorithm design, fault tolerance, and error recovery. Automatic programming should also be considered as a vehicle for improving the quality of software and the process of developing it. Data management. ”

“ In the general area of communication between man and machine, a few tasks are already well handled by available languages. For example, in the area of numerical computations the present formal languages, while not perfect, are highly serviceable. When one considers the introduction of sophisticated computer systems into environments where it is necessary for them to communicate frequently, competently, and rapidly with people who are not specialists in computer programming, then the need for improvement in man machine communication capability quickly becomes apparent. ”

“ The United States is not alone in placing importance on the computer in schools. Our Department of Commerce has published details of Russian work in this direction, noting that it began in 1955 and places high priority on the training of specialists in computer research, machine translation, automation, and so on. ”

“ Far from being a simple task, this definition turns out to be a slippery thing. In fact, if the computer has done no more than demand this sort of reappraisal of the human brain’s working, it has justified its existence. ”

“ Although it is found in surveys that every person thinks computer application reaches to the level just below his in the management structure, pure logic should ultimately win out over man’s emotional frailties at all levels. Operations research, implemented by the computer, will make for more efficient businesses. ”

“ Since this was based on 850,000 total loans of her books from thousands of schools and libraries, the bookkeeping was possible only with an electronic computer.
Computers are beginning to take over control of factories, steel mills, bakeries, chemical plants, and even the manufacture of ice cream. In scientific research, computers are solving mathematical and logical problems so complex that they would go forever unsolved if men had to do the work. ”