Software Pioneers [Hardcover]

Manfred Broy (Editor), Ernst Denert (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2002 | ISBN-10: 3540430814 | ISBN-13: 978-3540430810 | Edition: 1

This book, coming with four DVDs, presents epochal works of 16 of the most influential software pioneers. Seminal historical papers, going back as far as to the 1950s, are complemented by new papers especially written by the software pioneers for inclusion in this book and by short biographical notes. The volume is based on a conference where the pioneers met and presented their assessment of the past, new ideas, and visions for the future. The volume editors coherently integrated the historical contributions with current aspects and future perspectives. The four DVDs included are an important supplement to the book providing more than 12 hours of video documentation. Besides a representative overview drawing together the highlights of the presentations, the video recording of each pioneer's talk together with the transparencies used is included. Together, the book and the four DVDs constitute a unique and major contribution to the history of software engineering.

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews:

"Software Pioneers documents the proceedings of a celebration of software engineering held in Bonn, Germany, in June 2001. … As a celebration of software engineering the book works well. It is fairly priced, and the contributions are mostly original, readable and insightful. It is beautifully produced on blued paper, lending a uniformity to the varied typefaces of the facsimile reproductions of historical documents." (Martin Campbell-Kelly, Times Higher Education Supplement, February, 2003)

"This book, coming with four DVDs, presents epochal works of 16 of the most influential software pioneers. … The volume editors coherently integrated the historical contributions with current aspects and future perspectives. … Together, the book and the four DVDs constitute a unique and major contribution to the history of software engineering." (www.amazon.de, December, 2002)

“This book is based on a conference that took place in 2001 … . The speakers at the event … included many of the most legendary names in the history of software development who were asked to reflect on their own pioneering contributions to software engineering in the 20th century. … each of them address the conference with the added benefit of being able to re-read their lectures. This is a ‘must have’ resource for anyone … interested in the history of computing.” (Sue Gee, I Programmer, February, 2009)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 728 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (August 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3540430814
• ISBN-13: 978-3540430810
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,077,866 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Broad history of software ideas, May 4, 2011

By 

Blyvan "Blyvan" (Reno, NV United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Software Pioneers (Hardcover)

The book provide a broad overview of significant ideas in the software field. It contains helpful papers to explain these ideas. I am currently working on a graduate degree in computer science and this book provided a good background for my studies.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Book -- Useless DVDs, April 20, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Software Pioneers (Hardcover)

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
The DVDs that accompany the book can be read ONLY with the Windows software on the discs. Beyond the introductory music and the table of contents, nothing else can be viewed on a non-Windows PC or a DVD player. I suggest that the DVDs be treated as an extra only valuable to those with Windows boxes. I found this most unfortunate and makes the DVDs useless to me.

The book, on the other hand, is a collection of wonderful seminal articles with accompanying expositions. If you are a stranger to the articles, I suggest reading them (and re-reading them on a regular basis). They have not lost their freshness over the years. I would have wanted to have seen some of these authors talking (as some, such as Dijkstra, are no longer with us). If the DVDs could be read in regular players, I would have awarded the book 5 stars.