Giants of Computing

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".

• 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.

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 pivotal contributions, such as mathematical formula or code samples. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries." (S. A. Patton, Choice, Vol. 51 (7), March, 2014) "The author has given us a mini-biography of 59 'giants' of computing, with a brief account of their major achievements. ... the book is absolutely delightful and will provide the reader with many interesting and enjoyable evenings. There are even two quizzes for readers who wish to test their knowledge of people and events in computing." (James Van Speybroeck, Computing Reviews, October, 2013)