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Next: Discrete Mathematics Up: Michaelmas Term 1997: Part Previous: Professional Practice and Ethics

Computer Perspectives (50 per cent only)

Lecturers: Mr N. Bailey, Prof. M.V. Wilkes, Prof. R.M. Needham and
Prof. A.J.R.G. Milner

No. of lectures: 4  

Software quality.
Differences between programming to solve problems set as course work and programming for a living. Clients and their requirements. Design, specification and management. Ethical considerations. Waterfall diagrams, test procedures, monitoring progress. Metrics.

The story of the computer.
An illustrated history of the computer from the ENIAC and EDSAC of the 1940s to the Personal Computers of the present day. The development of processors, memory technology, disc drives and user interfaces.

Design choices and outcomes.
A look at the Grapevine messaging system.

What does the global computer compute?
We and our computers are all connected, forming a global computer. It has no predefined task; but how does it behave? Computer Science has to be enough of a science to understand this organism, which is just as complex as (for example) an ecology. What sort of theory can help?



Christine Northeast
Sat Sep 27 09:31:14 BST 1997