Three Debates about Computing

Matti Tedre

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-39053-1_48

Conference on Computability in Europe

CiE 2013: The Nature of Computation. Logic, Algorithms, Applications pp 404-413

Three Debates about Computing

Authors
Authors and affiliations

Matti Tedre

Conference paper

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-39053-1_48

Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNCS, volume 7921)

Cite this paper as:: Tedre M. (2013) Three Debates about Computing. In: Bonizzoni P., Brattka V., Löwe B. (eds) The Nature of Computation. Logic, Algorithms, Applications. CiE 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7921. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

Abstract

Computing as a discipline has a short but vivid history. Computing started to develop a disciplinary identity only after the birth of the stored-program paradigm in the 1940s, and its academic image has seen dramatic changes in the past six decades. This article presents three debates that are central in understanding how computing as a discipline developed to what it is now: the formal verification debate, the software engineering debate, and the experimental computer science debate.

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

1.
Aspray, W.: Was early entry a competitive advantage? US universities that entered computing in the 1940s. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 22(3), 42–87 (2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.
Atchison, W.F., Conte, S.D., Hamblen, J.W., Hull, T.E., Keenan, T.A., Kehl, W.B., McCluskey, E.J., Navarro, S.O., Rheinboldt, W.C., Schweppe, E.J., Viavant, W., David, J., Young, M.: Curriculum 68: Recommendations for academic programs in computer science: a report of the ACM curriculum committee on computer science. Communications of the ACM 11(3), 151–197 (1968)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.
Basili, V.R., Zelkowitz, M.V.: Empirical studies to build a science of computer science. Communications of the ACM 50(11), 33–37 (2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.
Brooks Jr., F.P.: No silver bullet: Essence and accidents of software engineering. IEEE Computer 20(4), 10–19 (1987)MathSciNetCrossRefGoogle Scholar
5.
Campbell-Kelly, M., Aspray, W.: Computer: A History of the Information Machine, 2nd edn. Westview Press, Oxford (2004)Google Scholar
6.
Conte, S.D., Hamblen, J.W., Kehl, W.B., Navarro, S.O., Rheinboldt, W.C., David, J., Young, M., Atchinson, W.F.: An undergraduate program in computer science–preliminary recommendations. Communications of the ACM 8(9), 543–552 (1965)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.
De Millo, R.A., Lipton, R.J., Perlis, A.J.: Social processes and proofs of theorems and programs. Communications of the ACM 22(5), 271–280 (1979)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8.
Denning, P.J., Comer, D.E., Gries, D., Mulder, M.C., Tucker, A., Turner, A.J., Young, P.R.: Computing as a discipline. Communications of the ACM 32(1), 9–23 (1989)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9.
Dijkstra, E.W.: The humble programmer. Communications of the ACM 15(10), 859–866 (1972)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10.
Dijkstra, E.W.: Programming as a discipline of mathematical nature. American Mathematical Monthly 81(6), 608–612 (1974)MathSciNetMATHCrossRefGoogle Scholar
11.
Dijkstra, E.W.: On a cultural gap. The Mathematical Intelligencer 8(1), 48–52 (1986)MathSciNetMATHCrossRefGoogle Scholar
12.
Dijkstra, E.W.: On the cruelty of really teaching computer science. Communications of the ACM 32(12), 1398–1404 (1989)Google Scholar
13.
Dijkstra, E.W.: The tide, not the waves. In: Denning, P.J., Metcalfe, R.M. (eds.) Beyond Calculation: The Next Fifty Years of Computing, pp. 59–64. Springer, New York (1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14.
Eden, A.H.: Three paradigms of computer science. Minds & Machines 17(2), 135–167 (2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15.
Egan, L.G.: Closing the “gap” between the university and industry in computer science. SIGCSE Bulletin 8(4), 19–25 (1976)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16.
Ensmenger, N.L.: The ’question of professionalism’ in the computer fields. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 23(4), 56–74 (2001)MathSciNetCrossRefGoogle Scholar
17.
Fein, L.: The role of the university in computers, data processing, and related fields. Communications of the ACM 2(9), 7–14 (1959)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18.
Feldman, J.A., Sutherland, W.R.: Rejuvenating experimental computer science: A report to the National Science Foundation and others. Communications of the ACM 22(9), 497–502 (1979)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19.
Fellows, M.R.: Computer science and mathematics in the elementary schools. In: Fisher, N.D., Keynes, H.B., Wagreich, P.D. (eds.) Mathematicians and Education Reform. Issues in Mathematics Education, vol. 3, pp. 1990–1991. American Mathematical Society, Providence (1993)Google Scholar
20.
Fetzer, J.H.: Program verification: the very idea. Communications of the ACM 31(9), 1048–1063 (1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21.
Forsythe, G.E.: A university’s educational program in computer science. Communications of the ACM 10(1), 3–11 (1967)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
22.
Forsythe, G.E.: What to do till the computer scientist comes. American Mathematical Monthly 75, 454–461 (1968)MathSciNetMATHCrossRefGoogle Scholar
23.
Galler, B.A.: Letter from a past president: Distinction of computer science. Communications of the ACM 17(6), 300 (1974)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
24.
Gibbs, W.W.: Software’s chronic crisis. Scientific American 271(3), 86–95 (1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25.
Haigh, T.: The history of information technology. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology 45(1), 431–487 (2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26.
Hoare, C.A.R.: The mathematics of programming. In: Maheshwari, S.N. (ed.) FSTTCS 1985. LNCS, vol. 206, pp. 1–18. Springer, Heidelberg (1985)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
27.
Hoare, C.A.R.: Retrospective: An axiomatic basis for computer programming. Communications of the ACM 52(10), 30–32 (2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
28.
Hodges, A.: Alan Turing: The Enigma. Vintage Books, London (1983)MATHGoogle Scholar
29.
Holloway, C.M.: Software engineering and epistemology. SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes 20(2), 20–21 (1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
30.
Johnson, D.S.: A theoretician’s guide to the experimental analysis of algorithms. In: Goldwasser, M.H., Johnson, D.S., McGeoch, C.C. (eds.) Data Structures, Near Neighbor Searches, and Methodology: Fifth and Sixth DIMACS Implementation Challenges. DIMACS Series in Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science, vol. 59, pp. 215–250. American Mathematical Society, Providence (2002)Google Scholar
31.
Knuth, D.E.: Algorithmic thinking and mathematical thinking. American Mathematical Monthly 92, 170–181 (1985)MathSciNetMATHCrossRefGoogle Scholar
32.
Mahoney, M.S.: Histories of Computing. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (2011)Google Scholar
33.
McCorduck, P.: An interview with Louis Fein. Charles Babbage Institute, The Center for the History of Information Processing (May 9, 1979)
34.
McCracken, D.D., Denning, P.J., Brandin, D.H.: An ACM executive committee position on the crisis in experimental computer science. Communications of the ACM 22(9), 503–504 (1979)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
35.
Naur, P., Randell, B. (eds.): Software Engineering: Report on a Conference Sponsored by the Nato Science Committee, Garmisch, Germany, October 7-11. NATO Scientific Affairs Division, Brussels (1968, 1969)Google Scholar
36.
Newell, A., Perlis, A.J., Simon, H.A.: Computer science. Science 157(3795), 1373–1374 (1967)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
37.
Palvia, P., Mao, E., Salam, A.F., Soliman, K.S.: Management information systems research: What’s there in a methodology? Communications of the Association for Information Systems 11(16), 1–32 (2003)Google Scholar
38.
Peisert, S., Bishop, M.: I am a scientist, not a philosopher! IEEE Security and Privacy 5(4), 48–51 (2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
39.
Ralston, A.: Computer science, mathematics, and the undergraduate curricula in both. The American Mathematical Monthly 88(7), 472–485 (1981)MathSciNetCrossRefGoogle Scholar
40.
Ralston, A., Shaw, M.: Curriculum ’78–is computer science really that unmathematical? Communications of the ACM 23(2), 67–70 (1980)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
41.
Reilly, E.D.: Milestones in Computer Science and Information Technology. Greenwood Press, Westport (2003)Google Scholar
42.
Rice, J.R., Rosen, S.: Computer sciences at Purdue University–1962 to 2000. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 26(2), 48–61 (2004)MathSciNetCrossRefGoogle Scholar
43.
Simon, H.A.: The Sciences of the Artificial, 1st edn. MIT Press, Cambridge (1969)Google Scholar
44.
Smith, B.C.: Limits of correctness in computers. Technical Report CSLI-85-36, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA (1985)
45.
Sommerville, I.: Software Engineering. Addison-Wesley, Bedford Square (1982)MATHGoogle Scholar
46.
Spier, M.J.: A critical look at the state of our science. SIGOPS Operating Systems Review 8(2), 9–15 (1974)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
47.
Tedre, M.: Computing as a science: A survey of competing viewpoints. Minds & Machines 21(3), 361–387 (2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
48.
Wegner, P.: Research paradigms in computer science. In: ICSE 1976: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Software Engineering, pp. 322–330. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (1976)Google Scholar
49.
Williams, S.B.: The association for computing machinery. Journal of the ACM 1(1), 1–3 (1954)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
50.
Wood, H.M.: Computer society celebrates 50 years. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 17(4), 6 (1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
51.
Zelkowitz, M.V., Wallace, D.R.: Experimental validation in software engineering. Information and Software Technology 39(11), 735–743 (1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

Authors and Affiliations

Matti Tedre
- 1

1.Department of Computer and Systems SciencesStockholm UniversityStockholmSweden

Personalised recommendations

Actions

Buy eBook

USD 69.99

Instant download
Readable on all devices
Own it forever
Local sales tax included if applicable

Three Debates about Computing

Abstract

Preview

Copyright information

Authors and Affiliations

Personalised recommendations

Cookies