Questions tagged [computer-science]
For questions about the scientific approach to computations and its applications.
92
questions
4
votes
1
answer
169
views
When has the notion of "programming language for machines" emerged?
Nowadays, it seems just common sense to write a program in a high-level programming language and let it be compiler (or interpreted) into machine code to run a computer. However, when did the ...
- 141
3
votes
2
answers
596
views
Was the computer invented through the influence of the printing press or through the influence of the calculator?
I was going through the documentation of the manual page in the Linux Operating System, when, I encountered the term "typesetting".
I surfed the web for answers and found it in Wikipedia.
But I am ...
- 31
3
votes
1
answer
134
views
Where does the term "pivot" come from in the quicksort algorithm?
The quicksort algorithm is based on recursively choosing an element to partition the array. In every modern exposition that I've seen, this element is called the "pivot".
However, as far as ...
- 225
3
votes
1
answer
245
views
Entscheidungsproblem vs. Unvollständigkeitssatz
The first term is used by Hilbert in his 1928 work, but in Gödel's later work, the same thing is referred to as Unvollständigkeitssatz ("incompleteness theorem"). For today's German CS researchers, it ...
- 160
3
votes
1
answer
113
views
Historical examples of frauds discovered because someone tried to mimic a uniform random sequence
So, I'm preparing a talk about the well known fact that humans are bad at the task of generating uniformly random sequences of numbers when asked to do so.
I would like to spice the talk a bit by ...
- 131
3
votes
1
answer
962
views
Serendipitous discoveries in Mathematics and Computer Science
I have recently been reading about serendipitous discoveries in science and I found them quite inspiring. Most of those discoveries are in Chemistry. I'm looking for examples of these kinds of ...
- 131
3
votes
0
answers
144
views
Has Turing's invention of Turing machines contributed to the development of real computers?
Has Turing's invention of Turing machines contributed to the development of real computers, which resulted in the personal computers we currently use?
I often saw it mentioned that this is an ...
- 31
3
votes
0
answers
312
views
Where does the term "arm's-length recursion" come from?
I've recently seen the term "arm's-length recursion" for a recursive method with a check that short-circuits the method's true or intended base case. What's the origin of this term? How did ...
- 227
3
votes
0
answers
174
views
Who were the major thinkers before Turing to ask whether machines can think? How come Turing's Test lasted as the influential one?
Turing Test has often been referred to both in academia and outside it when talking about AI. Yet there were I suppose many more thinkers except for Turing, possibly Descartes among them, that dealt ...
- 343
3
votes
0
answers
357
views
Etymology of 'qubit'; is there any relation to cubits?
Whilst several not-very-authoritative sources e.g. Wikipedia state that the word qubit was derived, partially, as a play on the word cubit (obviously it also stands for 'quantum bit'), is there any ...
- 131
3
votes
0
answers
359
views
Where did the divide and conquer method for radix conversion come from?
While doing the tedious work of documenting my software I tried to find the original source of the divide and conquer method for the conversion of numbers of one base to a number in another base (...
2
votes
1
answer
627
views
How did Lenna become the most used image in image processing?
$Lenna$ despite being an playboy model posing nude here and there, is one of the most used images for image processing. How she came into the world of image processing?
Was it done intentionally by ...
- 123
2
votes
1
answer
2k
views
What technologies were used before JavaScript?
I made a small research about the history before JavaScript was available to use, but I couldn't find much. I only found several plugins that was used, such as Adobe Flash, ActiveX.
So, what I want ...
- 143
2
votes
1
answer
762
views
What is the origin of "banana brackets"?
"Banana" brackets are used to denote catamorphisms:
Another notation found in the literature is .
These symbols are very similar to the composition of a $($ and a $|$, is this similarity ...
- 400
2
votes
2
answers
124
views
What factors make a technology grow exponentially over time? (e.g., as in Moore's Law)
We all know Moore's Law, namely that computing power grows exponentially. The specific statement of Moore's Law had to do withe the doubling time (2 years) of the number of transistors in a ...
- 121
2
votes
1
answer
203
views
Was a work of Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage inspiration for pioneers of modern computing?
Recently, I came across a book about Grace Hopper where it is stated that Howard Aiken wanted her to become familiar with papers by Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage as he considered some of Babbage's ...
- 544
2
votes
1
answer
168
views
Origins and reason for Volume A and B divide in Theoretical Computer Science
At some point in history, theoretical computer science emerged as a sub-discipline of computer science. Later, apparently it segregated into "volume A" work and "volume B" work. This can be seen for ...
- 364
2
votes
0
answers
87
views
In left- or right-rotation for arrays, where did those conventions for the directions come from?
This is a repost from another exchange.
I was going to write a paper about code to rotate elements in an array, but I realized I have no idea why rotation towards the start of the array is “left” ...
- 191
2
votes
0
answers
92
views
Why is $\eta$ used in $\eta$-conversion?
In lambda calculus there are three types of reduction,
$\alpha$-renaming
$\beta$-reduction
$\eta$-conversion
The use of $\eta$ in $\eta$-conversion seems rather strange to me. Since they already ...
2
votes
0
answers
123
views
What did Dijkstra think about Monte Carlo algorithms?
In A Discipline of Programming, Dijkstra wrote:
Two circumstances have changed the scene since then.* The one is the insight that, even in the case of fully deterministic machines, program testing ...
- 5,329
1
vote
2
answers
266
views
Can you provide pages 7, 8, 25 of the 1969 edition of the Art of Computer Programming?
A paper published in 1975 references The Art of Computer Programming (then published in 1969), so it's probably the first edition. I can't even find this edition for sale anywhere. Would you be so ...
- 45
1
vote
1
answer
133
views
When did the study of the rate of convergence of algorithms begin?
I was reading a book about computational complexity theory and the author made a claim that the study of time complexity of algorithms started with a result on the upper bound on the number of ...
- 1,515
1
vote
1
answer
290
views
What are some examples of galactic algorithms that have become practical?
On the Wikipedia article for galactic algorithm (an algorithm that only becomes efficient when the inputs are so large that the algorithm is not used in practice), one of the use cases is that
...
- 111
1
vote
1
answer
245
views
Did Turing ideas make any impact on Psychology or Brain Science? Why?
Some authors, namely Daniel Dennett and Douglas Hofstadter, argue that anything capable of passing the Turing test is necessarily conscious (Hofstadter, D. R., & Dennett, D. C. (2006). The Mind's ...
- 129
1
vote
1
answer
2k
views
Who first invented the programmable digital computer?
I read Charles Babbage invented the first mechanical computer (the Analytic Engine) and that Ada Lovelace devised the first computer programs.
Also I realize John Von Neumann invented the first ...
- 1,223
1
vote
0
answers
36
views
Help With Understanding of Constants in Zeller's Congruence
If this would be better suited over on the Mathematics Exchange, please move it appropriately. I thought I would start here for the history type aspect
Background
I'm currently working as a Data ...
- 111
1
vote
0
answers
65
views
What effect were used for manufacturing HDD before 1988?
I understand Hard disk present before 1988
and I came to know that Giant magnetoresistance effect used in applications in Hard Disk manufacturing and this effect is discovered in 1988
So what effect ...
- 11
1
vote
0
answers
158
views
The mathematics of multiple values
tl;dr
Why has the array paradigm, which emerged in the 1950s and 60s amongst mathematicians, and which underpins certain programming languages, apparently failed to capture and maintain interest ...
- 254
1
vote
0
answers
57
views
Is there a reason $⊑$ in CSP is analogous to $⊇$ (as opposed to $⊆$)?
The 'square' subset symbols are sometimes used to express analogous concepts to subsets, like prefixes or suffixes.
However their use in CSP seems to be counterintuitive to their shape: $⊑$ appears ...
- 400
1
vote
0
answers
99
views
When was the Server Side Include feature of web servers first made available?
Server Side Include (SSI) is a specific concept and related feature of web servers. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Side_Includes
When was this feature first introduced?
The Wikipedia ...
- 111
1
vote
0
answers
69
views
Gentzen and computer science
This is a cross-post from mathstack:
https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2584003/gentzen-and-computer-science?noredirect=1#comment5333947_2584003
I would like to learn a bit about the ...
- 111
1
vote
0
answers
32
views
How was the "train on 70% of data" convention established?
It's common in machine learning to train on 70% of non-validation data, testing on the remaining 30%. I'm not sure whether the motive for this is theoretical or "empirically this works well", although ...
- 1,720
1
vote
0
answers
82
views
Grey Walter and Norbert Wiener regarding holism
Grey Walter writes:
Even in the very simplest system, with two active elements, multiple interconnection between elements give several modes for which simple observation is useless. The study of ...
- 1,242
1
vote
0
answers
116
views
What is the relationship between constructivism and object oriented programming?
I am exploring the topic of constructivism from discreet math, and think it is related to object oriented programming. Can anyone confirm or deny the two are related?
1
vote
0
answers
148
views
How many computers are there?
There are about 7.13 billion humans alive today.
When installing Java, it says that 3 billion devices run Java. The question is, out of how many? How many computing devices that have enough ...
- 231
0
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Did Albert Einstein write a computer program?
I am curious whether or not Albert Einstein wrote a computer program. Did he write a computer program?
- 435
0
votes
0
answers
126
views
Who invented bit permutations like shuffle, butterfly and bit-reversal?
This question is about a class of periodic permutations,that are produced by applying finite permutations to the binary digits of all integers.
In lack of a better name, they shall be called bit ...
- 101
0
votes
0
answers
93
views
Technical analysis of von Neumann's contributions to computing?
I have seen the book The Annotated Turing and I found it quite nice to understand the ideas of Alan Turing. Are there similar books for understanding von Neumann's ideas in computing?
0
votes
0
answers
96
views
When did mathematical logic start being applied in/ with computer science?
I am going through articles about Turing machines which were introduced to solve the entscheidung problem by Alan Turing in 1936. To what I understand, all modern computers are essentially Turing ...
0
votes
0
answers
88
views
Derek Oppen and the Nelson-Oppen combination procedure
Derek Oppen was a student of Stephen Cook known for the Nelson-Oppen combination of decision procedures method. Yet, there is no Wikipedia entry dedicated to him and his publication list extends ...
- 135
0
votes
0
answers
55
views
Frege alluded to a logic algorithm?
Somewhere (I wish I remember where) I read that Gottlob Frege, although he didn't invent a logic algorithm, alluded to one (the Quine–McCluskey algorithm? something else? converting truth tables to ...
- 5,329
0
votes
0
answers
52
views
Tri-nary processor?
Every now and then, I run across a rumor of the Soviets building a tri-nary processor, way back when. But I can never find a source beyond the infamous guy who knows a guy...
The idea is interesting,...
- 9