The Science of Computing: Shaping a Discipline (Paperback)

Matti Tedre

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商品描述

The identity of computing has been fiercely debated throughout its short history. Why is it still so hard to define computing as an academic discipline? Is computing a scientific, mathematical, or engineering discipline?

 

By describing the mathematical, engineering, and scientific traditions of computing, The Science of Computing: Shaping a Discipline presents a rich picture of computing from the viewpoints of the field’s champions. The book helps readers understand the debates about computing as a discipline. It explains the context of computing’s central debates and portrays a broad perspective of the discipline.

 

The book first looks at computing as a formal, theoretical discipline that is in many ways similar to mathematics, yet different in crucial ways. It traces a number of discussions about the theoretical nature of computing from the field’s intellectual origins in mathematical logic to modern views of the role of theory in computing.

 

The book then explores the debates about computing as an engineering discipline, from the central technical innovations to the birth of the modern technical paradigm of computing to computing’s arrival as a new technical profession to software engineering gradually becoming an academic discipline. It presents arguments for and against the view of computing as engineering within the context of software production and analyzes the clash between the theoretical and practical mindsets.

 

The book concludes with the view of computing as a science in its own right—not just as a tool for other sciences. It covers the early identity debates of computing, various views of computing as a science, and some famous characterizations of the discipline. It also addresses the experimental computer science debate, the view of computing as a natural science, and the algorithmization of sciences.

商品描述(中文翻譯)

計算機的身份在其短暫的歷史中一直受到激烈辯論。為什麼將計算機定義為學術學科仍然如此困難?計算機是一門科學、數學還是工程學學科?

通過描述計算機的數學、工程和科學傳統,《計算機科學:塑造一門學科》從學科的倡導者的觀點呈現了計算機的豐富圖景。本書幫助讀者理解有關計算機作為一門學科的辯論。它解釋了計算機中心辯論的背景,並描繪了學科的廣泛視角。

本書首先將計算機視為一門形式的理論學科,從數學邏輯的學科起源到對計算機理論角色的現代觀點,追溯了一系列關於計算機理論性質的討論。

然後,本書探討了計算機作為一門工程學學科的辯論,從中心技術創新到現代計算機技術範式的誕生,再到計算機作為一門新的技術專業的出現,以及軟件工程逐漸成為一門學術學科。它在軟件生產的背景下提出了支持和反對將計算機視為工程學的觀點的論點,並分析了理論和實踐思維方式之間的衝突。

本書最後將計算機視為一門獨立的科學,而不僅僅是其他科學的工具。它涵蓋了計算機早期的身份辯論,計算機作為科學的各種觀點,以及對學科的一些著名描述。它還討論了實驗性計算機科學辯論,將計算機視為自然科學的觀點,以及科學的算法化。