Portal:Computer science

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P:CS

This portal is for the academic discipline of computer science. For other related portals, please see Portals: Technology and applied sciences.

Introduction

Computer science (sometimes called computation science or computing science, but not to be confused with computational science or software engineering) is the study of processes that interact with data and that can be represented as data in the form of programs. It enables the use of algorithms to manipulate, store, and communicate digital information. A computer scientist studies the theory of computation and the practice of designing software systems. Read more...

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“

...the unfactored criterion "A program is good (enough) as long as it satisfies your customers." is too woolly to be of any help.

”

— Edsger W. Dijkstra (1930-2002)
[EWD603: Tripreport, E.W.Dijkstra Archive]

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Fortran (previously FORTRAN) is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing. Originally developed by IBM at their campus in south San Jose, California^[1] in the 1950s for scientific and engineering applications, Fortran came to dominate this area of programming early on and has been in continual use for over half a century in computationally intensive areas such as numerical weather prediction, finite element analysis, computational fluid dynamics, computational physics and computational chemistry. It is one of the most popular languages in the area of high-performance computing ^[2] and is the language used for programs that benchmark and rank the world's fastest supercomputers.

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Credit: The Opte Project

Partial map of the Internet based on the January 15, 2005 data found on opte.org . Each line is drawn between two nodes, representing two IP addresses. The length of each line is indicative of the delay between those two nodes. This graph represents less than 30% of the Class C networks reachable by the data collection program in early 2005. Lines are color-coded according to their corresponding RFC 1918.

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Vinton Gray Cerf
B. 1943

Vinton Gray "Vint" Cerf[1] (/ˈsɜrf/; born June 23, 1943) is an American computer scientist, who is recognized as one of "the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with American computer scientist Bob Kahn. His contributions have been acknowledged and lauded, repeatedly, with honorary degrees and awards that include the National Medal of Technology, the Turing Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and membership in the National Academy of Engineering.

In the early days, Cerf was a program manager for the United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funding various groups to develop TCP/IP technology. When the Internet began to transition to a commercial opportunity during the late 1980s, Cerf moved to MCI where he was instrumental in the development of the first commercial email system (MCI Mail) connected to the Internet.

Cerf was instrumental in the funding and formation of ICANN from the start. He waited in the wings for a year before he stepped forward to join the ICANN Board, eventually becoming chairman.

Cerf went to Van Nuys High School along with Jon Postel and Steve Crocker; he wrote the former's obituary. Both were also instrumental in the creation of the Internet.

Cerf is also known for his sartorial style, typically appearing in three-piece suit—a rarity in an industry known for its casual dress norms.

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