Giants of Computing: A Compendium of Select, Pivotal Pioneers [Paperback]

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.?Suitable for the general reader, this concise and easy-to-read reference will be of interest to anyone curious about the inspiring men and women who have shaped the field of computer science.

Background.- Howard Aiken.- Gene Amdahl.- Archimedes.- John Atanasoff.- Charles Babbage.- John Backus.- Gordon Bell.- Tim Berners-Lee.- Dines Bj?rner.- George Boole.- Fred Brooks.- Vannevar Bush.- Vint Cerf.- Alonzo Church.- Noam Chomsky.- Edgar Codd.- Ren? 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.

From the reviews:

Giants of Computing is most useful as a reference work, but it could also serve as a supplemental course resource or possibly a core text in a class on the history of computing. & the author provides selected examples of pivotl37