A Computer Science Reader

Book excerpt: A Computer Science Reader covers the entire field of computing, from its technological status through its social, economic and political significance. The book's clearly written selections represent the best of what has been published in the first three-and-a-half years of ABACUS, Springer-Verlag's internatioanl quarterly journal for computing professionals. Among the articles included are: - U.S. versus IBM: An Exercise in Futility? by Robert P. Bigelow - Programmers: The Amateur vs. the Professional by Henry Ledgard - The Composer and the Computer by Lejaren Hiller - SDI: A Violation of Professional Responsibility by David L. Parnas - Who Invented the First Electronic Digital Computer? by Nancy Stern - Foretelling the Future by Adaptive Modeling by Ian H. Witten and John G. Cleary - The Fifth Generation: Banzai or Pie-in-the-Sky? by Eric A. Weiss This volume contains more than 30 contributions by outstanding and authoritative authors grouped into the magazine's regular categories: Editorials, Articles, Departments, Reports from Correspondents, and Features. A Computer Science Reader will be interesting and important to any computing professional or student who wants to know about the status, trends, and controversies in computer science today.