History sig scope
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ACS History SIG April 2010 David Benn
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Transcript of History sig scope
ACS History SIG April 2010
David Benn
Back to the FutureThe best way to predict the future is to invent it. (Alan Kay)
On the other hand...
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. (Winston Churchill)
ACS is 50.
computing goes back a long way...
Why should we talk about history?
to recognise, celebrate, and learn from the past.
To understand, e.g. why are computers, GUIs, programming languages etc the way they are?
It’s interesting...
Actually, do we need another reason?
We like to explore; the past is no different...
“I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam.”
Charles Babbage (19th Century inventor)
“Before computers were machines, they were people.” (David Alan Grier)
they were people.” (David Alan Grier)
Harvard College Observatory Human Computers (1925)
Harvard Archives (1891)
ENIAC
Early (Australian) Computers
CSIRAC
SILLIAC
Univac
IBM 7094
IBMSystem/360
Minicomputers
supercomputers
Microcomputers
Microcomputers
Microcomputers
Computer Science
But, as Edsger Dijkstra remarked:
“Computing Science is no more about computers than Astronomy is about Telescopes.”
Computer Science
Programming Languages
People
Operating Systems1969 - UNIX
1985 - OSX (Mach kernel)
1985 - AmigaOS
1991 - Linux
1993 - Windows 7 (via WindowsNT)
1995 - BeOS
1996 - Windows Mobile (via WinCE)
1997 - Symbian (via EPOC32)
2005 - Microsoft Singularity
Australia, SA, ACS, ...
CSIRAC, SILLIAC, ...
Computer Society of SA (CSSA) founded in 1960 by late Prof. Renn Potts & Don Overhue
First society for computing professionals in Australia (amongst first in world).
CSSA merged with others across Australia in 1966 to form Australian Computer Society. (ACS)
Questions for you
What big topics don’t appear in these slides?
What do you think this SIG should be about?
Do you have suggestions for talk topics, speakers?
Are you interested in writing, reviewing, speaking?
quotes could form basis of SIG meeting topics.
References
http://www.philsoc.org/2001Spring/2132transcript.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage
http://www.ithistory.org
Powerhouse Museum (Babbage etc)
The Computer History Museum
http://dbenn.wordpress.com/2007/01/14/martin-davis-on-the-importance-of-pure-research/
acs history book, other society’s (IEEE, ACM) journals
Notes
Leinbiz (17th century)
Binary number system
Calculus, independently of Newton
Stepped reckoner
calculus ratiocinator
characteristica universalis
