The Canon Cat is a task-dedicated microcomputer released by Canon Inc. in 1987 for $ 1,495 (equivalent to $ 4,000 in 2023). Its appearance resembles dedicated word processors of the late 1970s to early 1980s, but it is far more powerful, and has many unique ideas for data manipulation.
96-550: The system is primarily the creation of Jef Raskin who originated the Macintosh project at Apple . After leaving the company in 1982 and founding Information Appliance, Inc., he began designing a new computer closer to his original vision of an inexpensive, utilitarian "people's computer". Information Appliance first developed the SwyftCard for the Apple II , then licensed it to Canon as
192-404: A "Use Front" key and pressing another key. Special "Leap keys" are held down to allow the user incremental search for strings of characters. The hardware consists of a 9-inch (229 mm) black-and-white monitor (80 x 24 character display, 672 x 344 resolution), a single 3½-inch 256 KB floppy disk drive, and an IBM Selectric –compatible keyboard . It uses a Motorola 68000 CPU (like
288-633: A PhD, the university was not accredited for a PhD in computer science. The first original computer application he wrote was a music application as part of his master's thesis. Raskin later enrolled in a graduate music program at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), but quit to teach art, photography, and computer science there. He worked as an assistant professor in the Visual Arts department from 1968 until 1974. There, he presented shows about toys as works of art. Raskin announced his resignation from
384-428: A Professor at MIT . Raskin discouraged using the informal term " intuitive " in user interface design, claiming that easy to use interfaces are often due to exposure to previous, similar systems, thus the term "familiar" should be preferred. Aiming for "intuitive" interfaces (based on reusing existing skills with interaction systems) could lead designers to discard a better design solution only because it would require
480-484: A ZUI or Zooming User Interface . In the same period, Raskin accepted an appointment as Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at the University of Chicago 's Computer Science Department and, with Leo Irakliotis , started designing a new curriculum on humane interfaces and computer enterprises. His work is being extended and carried on by his son Aza Raskin at Humanized, a company that was started shortly after Raskin's death to continue his legacy. Humanized released Enso,
576-618: A commercial success. Raskin claimed that its failure was due in some part to Steve Jobs, who successfully pitched Canon on the NeXT Computer at about the same time. It has also been suggested that Canon canceled the Cat due to internal rivalries within its divisions. After running a cryptic full page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal that the "Canon Cat is coming" months before it was available, Canon failed to follow through, never airing
672-697: A decision reached simultaneously by others at Apple who had stronger authority on the issue. Raskin later stated that were he to redesign the mouse, it would have three clearly labeled buttons—two buttons on top marked "Select" and "Activate", and a "Grab" button on the side that could be used by squeezing the mouse. It has the three described buttons (two invisible), but they are assigned to different functions than Raskin specified for his own interface and can be customized. In 2005, Macintosh project member Andy Hertzfeld remembered Raskin's reputation for often inaccurately claiming to have invented various technologies. Raskin's resume from 2002 lends credence by stating he
768-570: A discipline, computer science spans a range of topics from theoretical studies of algorithms and the limits of computation to the practical issues of implementing computing systems in hardware and software. CSAB , formerly called Computing Sciences Accreditation Board—which is made up of representatives of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and the IEEE Computer Society (IEEE CS) —identifies four areas that it considers crucial to
864-672: A distinct academic discipline in the 1950s and early 1960s. The world's first computer science degree program, the Cambridge Diploma in Computer Science , began at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory in 1953. The first computer science department in the United States was formed at Purdue University in 1962. Since practical computers became available, many applications of computing have become distinct areas of study in their own rights. Although first proposed in 1956,
960-533: A full-blown computer system ... It's as close to perfect integration , on a small scale, as I've encountered to date". Archy , originally called The Humane Environment, was a project initiated by Raskin in 2005 with similar principles to the Canon Cat. Jef Raskin Jef Raskin (born Jeff Raskin ; March 9, 1943 – February 26, 2005) was an American human–computer interface expert who conceived and began leading
1056-428: A linguistic command-line interface, which is based on Jef's work and dedicated in his memory. In early 2008, Humanized became part of Mozilla . The Archy project never included a functional ZUI, but a third party developed a commercial application called Raskin inspired by the same Zoomworld ZUI idea. Raskin expanded the meaning of the term "cognetics" in his book The Humane Interface to mean "the ergonomics of
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#17328587816761152-464: A mathematical discipline argue that computer programs are physical realizations of mathematical entities and programs that can be deductively reasoned through mathematical formal methods . Computer scientists Edsger W. Dijkstra and Tony Hoare regard instructions for computer programs as mathematical sentences and interpret formal semantics for programming languages as mathematical axiomatic systems . A number of computer scientists have argued for
1248-443: A mathematics emphasis and with a numerical orientation consider alignment with computational science . Both types of departments tend to make efforts to bridge the field educationally if not across all research. Despite the word science in its name, there is debate over whether or not computer science is a discipline of science, mathematics, or engineering. Allen Newell and Herbert A. Simon argued in 1975, Computer science
1344-634: A model airplane room. He said, "I decided when I grew up I was not going to give up the things I liked doing, and I've not." He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2004 and died in Pacifica, California , on February 26, 2005, at age 61. Computer science Computer science is the study of computation , information , and automation . Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms , theory of computation , and information theory ) to applied disciplines (including
1440-463: A network while using concurrency, this is known as a distributed system. Computers within that distributed system have their own private memory, and information can be exchanged to achieve common goals. This branch of computer science aims to manage networks between computers worldwide. Computer security is a branch of computer technology with the objective of protecting information from unauthorized access, disruption, or modification while maintaining
1536-690: A novel approach. Raskin had interests other than computers. He conducted the San Francisco Chamber Opera Society and played various instruments, including the organ and the recorder . His artwork was displayed at New York's Museum of Modern Art as part of its permanent collection, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the University of California, San Diego. He received a patent for airplane wing construction, and designed and marketed radio controlled model gliders . He
1632-540: A number of terms for the practitioners of the field of computing were suggested in the Communications of the ACM — turingineer , turologist , flow-charts-man , applied meta-mathematician , and applied epistemologist . Three months later in the same journal, comptologist was suggested, followed next year by hypologist . The term computics has also been suggested. In Europe, terms derived from contracted translations of
1728-495: A particular kind of mathematically based technique for the specification , development and verification of software and hardware systems. The use of formal methods for software and hardware design is motivated by the expectation that, as in other engineering disciplines, performing appropriate mathematical analysis can contribute to the reliability and robustness of a design. They form an important theoretical underpinning for software engineering, especially where safety or security
1824-779: A set of interlocking wood blocks. One of Raskin's instruments was the organ. In 1978 he published an article in BYTE on using computers with the instrument. Raskin published a paper highly critical of pseudoscience in nursing, such as therapeutic touch and Rogerian science , wherein he said: "Unlike science, nursing theory has no built-in mechanisms for rejecting falsehoods, tautologies, and irrelevancies." Jef Raskin married Linda S. Blum in 1982. They had three children together— Aza , Aviva, and Aenea, with honorary surrogate siblings R. Fureigh and Jenna Mandis. In 1985, Raskin described his house as "practically one large playground", with secret doors and passageways, an auditorium that seats 185, and
1920-512: A significant amount of computer science does not involve the study of computers themselves. Because of this, several alternative names have been proposed. Certain departments of major universities prefer the term computing science , to emphasize precisely that difference. Danish scientist Peter Naur suggested the term datalogy , to reflect the fact that the scientific discipline revolves around data and data treatment, while not necessarily involving computers. The first scientific institution to use
2016-410: A specific application. Codes are used for data compression , cryptography , error detection and correction , and more recently also for network coding . Codes are studied for the purpose of designing efficient and reliable data transmission methods. Data structures and algorithms are the studies of commonly used computational methods and their computational efficiency. Programming language theory
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#17328587816762112-498: A version of the Pascal programming language ) to it, which Apple later licensed and shipped as Apple Pascal . Through this time, Raskin continually wrote memos about how the personal computer could become a true consumer appliance. While the Apple III was under development in 1978 and '79, Raskin was lobbying for Apple to create a radically different kind of computer that was designed from
2208-535: A week. Later versions of the language utilized "typing amplification" in which only the first letter is typed and the computer provides the balance of the instruction eliminating typing errors. It was also the basis for programming classes taught by Raskin and Collins in the UCSD Visual Arts Department. Raskin curated several art shows including one featuring his collection of unusual toys, and presenting toys as works of art. During this period, he changed
2304-415: Is a branch of computer science that deals with the design, implementation, analysis, characterization, and classification of programming languages and their individual features . It falls within the discipline of computer science, both depending on and affecting mathematics, software engineering, and linguistics . It is an active research area, with numerous dedicated academic journals. Formal methods are
2400-422: Is an empirical discipline. We would have called it an experimental science, but like astronomy, economics, and geology, some of its unique forms of observation and experience do not fit a narrow stereotype of the experimental method. Nonetheless, they are experiments. Each new machine that is built is an experiment. Actually constructing the machine poses a question to nature; and we listen for the answer by observing
2496-484: Is an open problem in the theory of computation. Information theory, closely related to probability and statistics , is related to the quantification of information. This was developed by Claude Shannon to find fundamental limits on signal processing operations such as compressing data and on reliably storing and communicating data. Coding theory is the study of the properties of codes (systems for converting information from one form to another) and their fitness for
2592-475: Is associated in the popular mind with robotic development , but the main field of practical application has been as an embedded component in areas of software development , which require computational understanding. The starting point in the late 1940s was Alan Turing's question " Can computers think? ", and the question remains effectively unanswered, although the Turing test is still used to assess computer output on
2688-466: Is built into 256 KB of ROM : a standard office suite , telecommunications, a 90,000-word spelling dictionary, and user programming toolchains for Forth and assembly language . Graphics routines are in ROM, and connectors for a mouse or other pointing device are never used. BYTE in 1989 said "The Cat is perfect for someone who needs industrial-strength editing and record keeping but doesn't require
2784-543: Is connected to many other fields in computer science, including computer vision , image processing , and computational geometry , and is heavily applied in the fields of special effects and video games . Information can take the form of images, sound, video or other multimedia. Bits of information can be streamed via signals . Its processing is the central notion of informatics, the European view on computing, which studies information processing algorithms independently of
2880-409: Is considered by some to have a much closer relationship with mathematics than many scientific disciplines, with some observers saying that computing is a mathematical science. Early computer science was strongly influenced by the work of mathematicians such as Kurt Gödel , Alan Turing , John von Neumann , Rózsa Péter and Alonzo Church and there continues to be a useful interchange of ideas between
2976-508: Is determining what can and cannot be automated. The Turing Award is generally recognized as the highest distinction in computer science. The earliest foundations of what would become computer science predate the invention of the modern digital computer . Machines for calculating fixed numerical tasks such as the abacus have existed since antiquity, aiding in computations such as multiplication and division. Algorithms for performing computations have existed since antiquity, even before
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3072-630: Is generally considered the province of disciplines other than computer science. For example, the study of computer hardware is usually considered part of computer engineering , while the study of commercial computer systems and their deployment is often called information technology or information systems . However, there has been exchange of ideas between the various computer-related disciplines. Computer science research also often intersects other disciplines, such as cognitive science , linguistics , mathematics , physics , biology , Earth science , statistics , philosophy , and logic . Computer science
3168-584: Is intended to organize, store, and retrieve large amounts of data easily. Digital databases are managed using database management systems to store, create, maintain, and search data, through database models and query languages . Data mining is a process of discovering patterns in large data sets. The philosopher of computing Bill Rapaport noted three Great Insights of Computer Science : Programming languages can be used to accomplish different tasks in different ways. Common programming paradigms include: Many languages offer support for multiple paradigms, making
3264-426: Is involved. Formal methods are a useful adjunct to software testing since they help avoid errors and can also give a framework for testing. For industrial use, tool support is required. However, the high cost of using formal methods means that they are usually only used in the development of high-integrity and life-critical systems , where safety or security is of utmost importance. Formal methods are best described as
3360-545: Is mathematical and abstract in spirit, but it derives its motivation from practical and everyday computation. It aims to understand the nature of computation and, as a consequence of this understanding, provide more efficient methodologies. According to Peter Denning, the fundamental question underlying computer science is, "What can be automated?" Theory of computation is focused on answering fundamental questions about what can be computed and what amount of resources are required to perform those computations. In an effort to answer
3456-519: Is of high quality, affordable, maintainable, and fast to build. It is a systematic approach to software design, involving the application of engineering practices to software. Software engineering deals with the organizing and analyzing of software—it does not just deal with the creation or manufacture of new software, but its internal arrangement and maintenance. For example software testing , systems engineering , technical debt and software development processes . Artificial intelligence (AI) aims to or
3552-575: Is required to synthesize goal-orientated processes such as problem-solving, decision-making, environmental adaptation, learning, and communication found in humans and animals. From its origins in cybernetics and in the Dartmouth Conference (1956), artificial intelligence research has been necessarily cross-disciplinary, drawing on areas of expertise such as applied mathematics , symbolic logic, semiotics , electrical engineering , philosophy of mind , neurophysiology , and social intelligence . AI
3648-573: Is the SwyftCard, a firmware card for the Apple II containing an integrated application suite, also released on a disk as SwyftWare. Information Appliance later developed the Swyft as a stand-alone laptop computer. Raskin licensed this design to Canon , which shipped a similar desktop product as the Canon Cat . Released in 1987, the unit had an innovative interface that attracted much interest but it did not become
3744-432: Is the field of study and research concerned with the design and use of computer systems , mainly based on the analysis of the interaction between humans and computer interfaces . HCI has several subfields that focus on the relationship between emotions , social behavior and brain activity with computers . Software engineering is the study of designing, implementing, and modifying the software in order to ensure it
3840-783: Is the field of study concerned with constructing mathematical models and quantitative analysis techniques and using computers to analyze and solve scientific problems. A major usage of scientific computing is simulation of various processes, including computational fluid dynamics , physical, electrical, and electronic systems and circuits, as well as societies and social situations (notably war games) along with their habitats, among many others. Modern computers enable optimization of such designs as complete aircraft. Notable in electrical and electronic circuit design are SPICE, as well as software for physical realization of new (or modified) designs. The latter includes essential design software for integrated circuits . Human–computer interaction (HCI)
3936-630: The Macintosh project at Apple in the late 1970s. Jef Raskin was born in New York City to a secular Jewish family, whose surname is a matronymic from "Raske", Yiddish nickname for Rachel. He received a BA in mathematics and a BS in physics with minors in philosophy and music from Stony Brook University . In 1967, he received a master's degree in computer science from Pennsylvania State University , after having switched from mathematical logic due to differences of opinion with his advisor. Even though he had completed work typical for
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4032-583: The Macintosh project in 1979 to implement some of these ideas. He later hired his former student Bill Atkinson from UCSD to Apple, along with Andy Hertzfeld and Burrell Smith from the Apple Service Department, which was located in the same building as the Publications Department. Secretly bypassing Jobs's ego and authority by continually securing permission and funding directly at the executive level, Raskin created and solely supervised
4128-569: The Xerox PARC -inspired GUI -based Lisa design to Raskin's appliance-computing, "computers-by-the-millions" concept. Steve Wozniak , who around then had been co-leading the Macintosh team with Raskin, was on hiatus from the company following a traumatic airplane accident, allowing Jobs to take managerial lead over the project. Raskin is credited as one of the first to introduce Jobs and the Lisa engineers to
4224-475: The "technocratic paradigm" (which might be found in engineering approaches, most prominently in software engineering), and the "scientific paradigm" (which approaches computer-related artifacts from the empirical perspective of natural sciences , identifiable in some branches of artificial intelligence ). Computer science focuses on methods involved in design, specification, programming, verification, implementation and testing of human-made computing systems. As
4320-554: The 100th anniversary of the invention of the arithmometer, Torres presented in Paris the Electromechanical Arithmometer , a prototype that demonstrated the feasibility of an electromechanical analytical engine, on which commands could be typed and the results printed automatically. In 1937, one hundred years after Babbage's impossible dream, Howard Aiken convinced IBM, which was making all kinds of punched card equipment and
4416-451: The 2nd of the only two designs for mechanical analytical engines in history. In 1914, the Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo published his Essays on Automatics , and designed, inspired by Babbage, a theoretical electromechanical calculating machine which was to be controlled by a read-only program. The paper also introduced the idea of floating-point arithmetic . In 1920, to celebrate
4512-618: The Analytical Engine, Ada Lovelace wrote, in one of the many notes she included, an algorithm to compute the Bernoulli numbers , which is considered to be the first published algorithm ever specifically tailored for implementation on a computer. Around 1885, Herman Hollerith invented the tabulator , which used punched cards to process statistical information; eventually his company became part of IBM . Following Babbage, although unaware of his earlier work, Percy Ludgate in 1909 published
4608-414: The Cat. BYTE in 1987 described the Cat as "a spiritual heir to the Macintosh". The Canon Cat uses a text-based user interface , without any pointer, mouse , icons , or graphics . All data are seen as a long "stream" of text broken into several pages. Instead of using a traditional command-line interface or menu system, the Cat uses its special keyboard , with commands activated by holding down
4704-547: The Machine Organization department in IBM's main research center in 1959. Concurrency is a property of systems in which several computations are executing simultaneously, and potentially interacting with each other. A number of mathematical models have been developed for general concurrent computation including Petri nets , process calculi and the parallel random access machine model. When multiple computers are connected in
4800-425: The Macintosh project for approximately its first year. This included selecting the name of his favorite apple, writing the mission document The Book of Macintosh , securing office space, and recruiting and managing the original staff. Author Steven Levy said, "It was Raskin who provided the powerful vision of a computer whose legacy would be low cost, high utility, and a groundbreaking friendliness." The prototype
4896-483: The Macintosh) running at 5 MHz , has 256 KB of RAM , and an internal 300/1200 bit/s modem . Setup and user preference data are stored in 8 KB of non-volatile RAM with battery backup. The array of I/O interfaces encompasses one Centronics parallel port , one RS-232C serial port ( DB-25 ), and two RJ11 telephone jacks for the modem loop. The total weight is 17 pounds (7.7 kg). A range of application software
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#17328587816764992-496: The PARC concepts, though he ultimately dismissed PARC's technology and opposed the use of the mouse. Raskin claimed to have had continued direct input into the eventual Mac design, including the decision to use a one-button mouse as part of the Apple interface, instead of PARC's 3-button mouse. Others, including Larry Tesler , acknowledge his advocacy for a one-button mouse but say that it was
5088-515: The Swyft. Raskin wrote a book, The Humane Interface (2000), in which he developed his ideas about human-computer interfaces. Raskin was a long-time member of BAYCHI, the Bay-Area Computer-Human Interface group, a professional organization for human-interface designers. He presented papers on his own work, reviewed the human interfaces of various consumer products (such as a BMW car he'd been asked to review), and discussed
5184-546: The UK (as in the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh ). "In the U.S., however, informatics is linked with applied computing, or computing in the context of another domain." A folkloric quotation, often attributed to—but almost certainly not first formulated by— Edsger Dijkstra , states that "computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." The design and deployment of computers and computer systems
5280-516: The accessibility and usability of the system for its intended users. Historical cryptography is the art of writing and deciphering secret messages. Modern cryptography is the scientific study of problems relating to distributed computations that can be attacked. Technologies studied in modern cryptography include symmetric and asymmetric encryption , digital signatures , cryptographic hash functions , key-agreement protocols , blockchain , zero-knowledge proofs , and garbled circuits . A database
5376-433: The application of a fairly broad variety of theoretical computer science fundamentals, in particular logic calculi, formal languages , automata theory , and program semantics , but also type systems and algebraic data types to problems in software and hardware specification and verification. Computer graphics is the study of digital visual contents and involves the synthesis and manipulation of image data. The study
5472-599: The art and humanities students. The language was first used at the Humanities Summer Training Institute held in 1970 at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas . The language has only seven statements ( COMMENT , GET IT , PRINT IT , PRINT "text" , JUMP TO , IF IT IS " " JUMP TO , and STOP ) and can not manipulate numbers. The language was first implemented in Fortran by Collins in under
5568-554: The assistant professorship by flying over the Chancellor's house in a hot air balloon. He was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to establish a Computer and Humanities center which used several 16-bit Data General Nova computers and CRTs rather than the teletypes which were more common. Along with his undergraduate student Jonathan (Jon) Collins, Raskin developed the FLOW programming language for use in teaching programming to
5664-410: The binary number system. In 1820, Thomas de Colmar launched the mechanical calculator industry when he invented his simplified arithmometer , the first calculating machine strong enough and reliable enough to be used daily in an office environment. Charles Babbage started the design of the first automatic mechanical calculator , his Difference Engine , in 1822, which eventually gave him the idea of
5760-560: The company, because there was such an antiacademic bias in the early Apple days." From his responsibility for documentation and testing, Raskin had great influence on early engineering projects. Because the Apple II only displayed uppercase characters on a 40-column screen, his department used the PolyMorphic Systems 8813 (an Intel-8080-based machine running a proprietary operating system called Exec) to write documentation; this spurred
5856-440: The completed TV advertisement at launch, only allowed the Cat to be sold by its typewriter sales people, and prevented Raskin from selling the Cat directly with a TV demonstration of how easy it was to use. Shortly thereafter, the stock market crash of 1987 so panicked Information Appliance's venture capitalists that they drained millions of dollars from the company, depriving it of the capital needed to be able to manufacture and sell
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#17328587816765952-480: The debut of their Apple II personal computer at the first West Coast Computer Faire . Jobs hired Raskin's company Bannister and Crun to write the Apple II BASIC Programming Manual. Raskin said "I was talking fifty dollars a page. They talked fifty dollars for the whole manual." Upon the Apple II unit with the serial number of "2", he reportedly wrote "a literate manual that became a standard for
6048-471: The design and implementation of hardware and software ). Algorithms and data structures are central to computer science. The theory of computation concerns abstract models of computation and general classes of problems that can be solved using them. The fields of cryptography and computer security involve studying the means for secure communication and preventing security vulnerabilities . Computer graphics and computational geometry address
6144-470: The development of an 80-column display card and a suitable text editor for the Apple II. His experiences testing Applesoft BASIC inspired him to design a competing product, called Notzo BASIC, which was never implemented. When Wozniak developed the first disk drives for the Apple II, Raskin went back to his contacts at UCSD and encouraged them to port the UCSD P-System operating system (incorporating
6240-467: The development of sophisticated computing equipment. Wilhelm Schickard designed and constructed the first working mechanical calculator in 1623. In 1673, Gottfried Leibniz demonstrated a digital mechanical calculator, called the Stepped Reckoner . Leibniz may be considered the first computer scientist and information theorist, because of various reasons, including the fact that he documented
6336-583: The discipline of computer science: theory of computation , algorithms and data structures , programming methodology and languages , and computer elements and architecture . In addition to these four areas, CSAB also identifies fields such as software engineering, artificial intelligence, computer networking and communication, database systems, parallel computation, distributed computation, human–computer interaction, computer graphics, operating systems, and numerical and symbolic computation as being important areas of computer science. Theoretical computer science
6432-424: The distinction more a matter of style than of technical capabilities. Conferences are important events for computer science research. During these conferences, researchers from the public and private sectors present their recent work and meet. Unlike in most other academic fields, in computer science, the prestige of conference papers is greater than that of journal publications. One proposed explanation for this
6528-459: The distinction of three separate paradigms in computer science. Peter Wegner argued that those paradigms are science, technology, and mathematics. Peter Denning 's working group argued that they are theory, abstraction (modeling), and design. Amnon H. Eden described them as the "rationalist paradigm" (which treats computer science as a branch of mathematics, which is prevalent in theoretical computer science, and mainly employs deductive reasoning),
6624-511: The expression "automatic information" (e.g. "informazione automatica" in Italian) or "information and mathematics" are often used, e.g. informatique (French), Informatik (German), informatica (Italian, Dutch), informática (Spanish, Portuguese), informatika ( Slavic languages and Hungarian ) or pliroforiki ( πληροφορική , which means informatics) in Greek . Similar words have also been adopted in
6720-457: The first programmable mechanical calculator , his Analytical Engine . He started developing this machine in 1834, and "in less than two years, he had sketched out many of the salient features of the modern computer". "A crucial step was the adoption of a punched card system derived from the Jacquard loom " making it infinitely programmable. In 1843, during the translation of a French article on
6816-477: The first question, computability theory examines which computational problems are solvable on various theoretical models of computation . The second question is addressed by computational complexity theory , which studies the time and space costs associated with different approaches to solving a multitude of computational problems. The famous P = NP? problem, one of the Millennium Prize Problems ,
6912-461: The generation of images. Programming language theory considers different ways to describe computational processes, and database theory concerns the management of repositories of data. Human–computer interaction investigates the interfaces through which humans and computers interact, and software engineering focuses on the design and principles behind developing software. Areas such as operating systems , networks and embedded systems investigate
7008-502: The machine in operation and analyzing it by all analytical and measurement means available. It has since been argued that computer science can be classified as an empirical science since it makes use of empirical testing to evaluate the correctness of programs , but a problem remains in defining the laws and theorems of computer science (if any exist) and defining the nature of experiments in computer science. Proponents of classifying computer science as an engineering discipline argue that
7104-614: The mind". According to Raskin Center, "Cognetics brings interface design out of the mystic realm of guruism, transforming it into an engineering discipline with a rigorous theoretical framework." The term cognetics had earlier been coined and trademarked by Charles Kreitzberg in 1982 when he started Cognetics Corporation , one of the first user experience design companies. It is also used to describe educational programs intended to foster thinking skills in grades 3-12 (US) and for Cognetics, Inc., an economic research firm founded by David L. Birch ,
7200-478: The principal focus of computer science is studying the properties of computation in general, while the principal focus of software engineering is the design of specific computations to achieve practical goals, making the two separate but complementary disciplines. The academic, political, and funding aspects of computer science tend to depend on whether a department is formed with a mathematical emphasis or with an engineering emphasis. Computer science departments with
7296-615: The principles and design behind complex systems . Computer architecture describes the construction of computer components and computer-operated equipment. Artificial intelligence and machine learning aim to synthesize goal-orientated processes such as problem-solving, decision-making, environmental adaptation, planning and learning found in humans and animals. Within artificial intelligence, computer vision aims to understand and process image and video data, while natural language processing aims to understand and process textual and linguistic data. The fundamental concern of computer science
7392-484: The reliability of computational systems is investigated in the same way as bridges in civil engineering and airplanes in aerospace engineering . They also argue that while empirical sciences observe what presently exists, computer science observes what is possible to exist and while scientists discover laws from observation, no proper laws have been found in computer science and it is instead concerned with creating phenomena. Proponents of classifying computer science as
7488-409: The scale of human intelligence. But the automation of evaluative and predictive tasks has been increasingly successful as a substitute for human monitoring and intervention in domains of computer application involving complex real-world data. Computer architecture, or digital computer organization, is the conceptual design and fundamental operational structure of a computer system. It focuses largely on
7584-449: The slogan on the Macintosh group's easel, "It's better to be a pirate than to join the Navy." Apple acknowledged Raskin's role after he had left the company by gifting him the millionth Macintosh computer, with an engraved brass plaque on the front. Raskin left Apple in 1982 and formed Information Appliance, Inc. to implement the concepts of his original Macintosh concept. The first product
7680-498: The spelling of his name from "Jeff" to "Jef" after having met Jon Collins and liking the lack of extraneous letters. Raskin occasionally wrote for computer publications, such as Dr. Dobb's Journal . He formed a company named Bannister and Crun, which was named for two characters playing in the BBC radio comedy The Goon Show . Raskin first met Apple Computer co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in their garage workshop following
7776-463: The start to be easy to use. In Computers by the Millions , he stated that expandable computers like the Apple II were too complex, and development was difficult due to the unknown nature of the machine the program ran on. The machine he envisioned was very different from the Macintosh that was eventually released and had much more in common with PDAs than modern desktop -based machines. Raskin started
7872-504: The term computer came to refer to the machines rather than their human predecessors. As it became clear that computers could be used for more than just mathematical calculations, the field of computer science broadened to study computation in general. In 1945, IBM founded the Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory at Columbia University in New York City . The renovated fraternity house on Manhattan's West Side
7968-743: The term "computer science" appears in a 1959 article in Communications of the ACM , in which Louis Fein argues for the creation of a Graduate School in Computer Sciences analogous to the creation of Harvard Business School in 1921. Louis justifies the name by arguing that, like management science , the subject is applied and interdisciplinary in nature, while having the characteristics typical of an academic discipline. His efforts, and those of others such as numerical analyst George Forsythe , were rewarded: universities went on to create such departments, starting with Purdue in 1962. Despite its name,
8064-508: The term was the Department of Datalogy at the University of Copenhagen, founded in 1969, with Peter Naur being the first professor in datalogy. The term is used mainly in the Scandinavian countries. An alternative term, also proposed by Naur, is data science ; this is now used for a multi-disciplinary field of data analysis, including statistics and databases. In the early days of computing,
8160-443: The two fields in areas such as mathematical logic , category theory , domain theory , and algebra . The relationship between computer science and software engineering is a contentious issue, which is further muddied by disputes over what the term "software engineering" means, and how computer science is defined. David Parnas , taking a cue from the relationship between other engineering and science disciplines, has claimed that
8256-481: The type of information carrier – whether it is electrical, mechanical or biological. This field plays important role in information theory , telecommunications , information engineering and has applications in medical image computing and speech synthesis , among others. What is the lower bound on the complexity of fast Fourier transform algorithms? is one of the unsolved problems in theoretical computer science . Scientific computing (or computational science)
8352-533: The user simply started typing text it switched into editor mode, and if numbers are typed it switched to calculator mode. In many cases these switches were largely invisible to the user. It was clear that Macintosh was the most interesting thing at Apple—and Steve Jobs took it over. Jef Raskin In 1981, after the Lisa team had "kicked him out", Steve Jobs 's attention drew toward Raskin's Macintosh project, intending to combine
8448-438: The way by which the central processing unit performs internally and accesses addresses in memory. Computer engineers study computational logic and design of computer hardware, from individual processor components, microcontrollers , personal computers to supercomputers and embedded systems . The term "architecture" in computer literature can be traced to the work of Lyle R. Johnson and Frederick P. Brooks Jr. , members of
8544-405: The work of his colleagues in various companies and universities. At the start of the new millennium, Raskin undertook the building of a new computer interface based on his 30 years of work and research, called The Humane Environment, THE. On January 1, 2005, he renamed it Archy . It is a system incarnating his concepts of the humane interface, by using open source elements within his rendition of
8640-461: The young industry". In January 1978, Raskin joined Apple as Manager of Publications, the company's 31st employee. For some time he continued as Director of Publications and New Product Review, and also worked on packaging and other issues. He had concealed his degree in computer science, out of concern for cultural bias against academia among the hobby-driven personal computer industry. He explained, "If they had known ... they might not have let me in
8736-547: Was "Creator of Macintosh computer at Apple Computer, Inc." Raskin conceived and solely supervised the Macintosh project for approximately its first year; however, Hertzfeld describes Raskin's relationship to the drastically different finished Mac product more like that of an "eccentric great uncle" than its father. In Jobs's "Lost Interview" from 1996, he refers to the Macintosh as a product of team effort while acknowledging Raskin's early role. Jobs reportedly co-opted some of Raskin's leadership philosophies, such as when he wrote
8832-440: Was IBM's first laboratory devoted to pure science. The lab is the forerunner of IBM's Research Division, which today operates research facilities around the world. Ultimately, the close relationship between IBM and Columbia University was instrumental in the emergence of a new scientific discipline, with Columbia offering one of the first academic-credit courses in computer science in 1946. Computer science began to be established as
8928-536: Was also in the calculator business to develop his giant programmable calculator, the ASCC/Harvard Mark I , based on Babbage's Analytical Engine, which itself used cards and a central computing unit. When the machine was finished, some hailed it as "Babbage's dream come true". During the 1940s, with the development of new and more powerful computing machines such as the Atanasoff–Berry computer and ENIAC ,
9024-434: Was an accomplished archer , target shooter, bicycle racer and an occasional model race car driver. He was a musician and composer, publishing a series of collected recorder studies using the pseudonym of Aabel Aabius. In his later years he also wrote freelance articles for Macintosh magazines, such as Mac Home Journal , and many modeling magazines, Forbes , Wired , and computing journals. One of his favorite pastimes
9120-470: Was similar in power to the Apple II and included a small 9-inch (230 mm) black-and-white character display and floppy drive, in a small case. It was text only, as Raskin disliked the computer mouse or anything else that could take his hands from the keyboard. Several basic applications were built into the machine, selectable by pressing function keys. The machine included logic to understand user intentions and switch programs dynamically. For instance, if
9216-402: Was to play music with his children. He accompanied them on the piano while they played or sang while going through old fake-books passed down from his father. They routinely improvised together. Raskin owned Jef's Friends, a small company which made model airplane kits. He was a toy designer. He designed Space Expander, a hanging cloth maze for a person to walk through. He designed Bloxes,
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