It has been upon the shoulders of giants that the modern world has been forged.

This accessible compendium presents an insight into the great minds responsible for the technology which has transformed our lives. Each pioneer is introduced with a brief biography, followed by a concise account of their key contributions to their discipline. The selection covers a broad spread of historical and contemporary figures from theoreticians to entrepreneurs, highlighting the richness of the field of computing.

Topics and features:

• Describes the lives and machines built by Hermann Hollerith, Vannevar Bush, Howard Aiken, John Atanasoff, Tommy Flowers, John Mauchly, and Konrad Zuse
• Examines the contributions made by Claude Shannon, John Von Neumann, Alan Turing, and Sir Frederick Williams
• Reviews such pioneers of commercial computing as John Backus, Fred Brooks, Gordon Moore, William Shockley, Vint Cerf, Don Estridge, Gary Kildall, and Tim Berners-Lee
• Surveys pivotal software engineers, including Robert Floyd, C.A.R Hoare, Dines Bjorner, Edger Dijkstra, Tom DeMarco, Michael Fagan, Watt Humphries, Ivor Jacobson, David Parnas, and Ed Yourdan
• Discusses important characters in theoretical computing, such as James Gosling, Grace Murray Hopper, Kenneth Iverson, Donald Knuth, Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson, Dana Scott, Christopher Strachey, Bjarne Stroustroup, and Niklaus Wirth
• Includes significant contributors to the field of artificial intelligence, including John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, John Searle, and Joseph Weizenbaum

• Presents a selection of computer entrepreneurs, including Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Ken Olsen, and Thomas Watson Sr. and Jr. Suitable for the general reader, this concise andeasy-to-read reference will be of interest to anyone curious about the inspiring men and women who have shaped the field of computer science.

  Autorentext

  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 is the author of the Springer titles "Mathematics in Computing", "A Brief History of Computing", "Introduction to Software Process Improvement", "Mathematical Approaches to Software Quality" and "A Practical Approach to Software Quality".

  Inhalt

  Background

Howard Aiken

Gene Amdahl

Archimedes

John Atanasoff

Charles Babbage

John Backus

Gordon Bell

Tim Berners-Lee

Dines Bjørner

George Boole

Fred Brooks

Vannevar Bush

Vint Cerf

Alonzo Church

Noam Chomsky

Edgar Codd

René Descartes

Tom DeMarco

Edsger Dijkstra

George Devol

Larry Ellison

Don Estridge

Michael Fagan

Tommy Flowers

Robert Floyd

Bill Gates

James Gosling

C.A.R Hoare

Heman Hollerith

Watts Humphrey

Kenneth Iverson

Ivar Jacobson

Steve Jobs

Gary Kildall

Donald Knuth

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Ada Lovelace

John McCarthy

John Mauchly

Marvin Minsky

Gordon Moore

Grace Murray Hopper

Ken Olsen

David Parnas

Dennis Ritchie

Dana Scott

John Searle

Claude Shannon

William Shockley

Richard Stallman Bjarne Stroustrup Alan Turing

John von Neumann

Thomas Watson Sr. and Jr.

Joseph Weizenbaum

Frederick Williams

Niklaus Wirth

Ed Yourdon

Konrad Zuse

Epilogue

Test Yourself Quizzes

Glossary