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Although the computer software industry is growing rapidly and is of increasing importance for the international competitiveness of other high-technology industries and national economies, it has received surprisingly little attention from scholars. Data on employment, sales, and industry structure ...

Although the computer software industry is growing rapidly and is of increasing importance for the international competitiveness of other high-technology industries and national economies, it has received surprisingly little attention from scholars. Data on employment, sales, and industry structure for the software industry are rare, and public statistical agencies do not provide reliable, internationally comparable data. The International Computer Software Industry offers the first comprehensive, cross-national analysis of the origins, structure, and competitive strengths of the U.S., Japanese, British, Western European, and Russian computer software industries. In addition to chapters dealing with each of these industries, the volume examines in detail the role of U.S. government policy in supporting the emergence of the U.S. software industry, the interaction between software and hardware in technology commercialization, and the changing structure and influence of intellectual property rights within the industry. This edited volume contains research conducted by a group of international experts in the software industry. It will be essential reading for managers and analysts in the software industry, along with scholars and students of technology and of the computer software industry.

Software is an invisible art that has transformed our lives. In the 1950s, before John Backus's team developed the Fortran language that revolutionized the first generation of programming, it took corps of full-time programmers to run and debug one of the room-sized computers of the time. Today ...

Software is an invisible art that has transformed our lives. In the 1950s, before John Backus's team developed the Fortran language that revolutionized the first generation of programming, it took corps of full-time programmers to run and debug one of the room-sized computers of the time. Today, programming languages have advanced so far and become so much easier to use that software tools are accessible to millions instead of a tiny computing "priesthood." With HTML, for example, anyone with a bit of training can set up a personal Web page, using a laptop that has many times the power of those early giant computers. In Go To, New York Times correspondent Steve Lohr chronicles the untold history of software and its maverick creators. In the original engineering culture of computing, hardware was the real science, respected and revered. Programming was merely a technician's chore, and programmers were considered the unruly bohemians of the field. Drawing upon original reporting and interviews, Lohr gives us an intimate portrait of the peculiar kind of genius that has always been drawn to this unique blend of art, science, and engineering. We meet leading figures from the postwar origins of computer programming to the open-source movement of today-imaginative originals such as Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie, whose all-night stints at Bell Labs gave rise to the Unix operating system and C programming language that loosened the grip of IBM; Charles Simonyi, whose childhood as an Erector-set fanatic in Communist Hungary led to becoming the emigre architect of the spectacularly successful Word software used by millions; and James Gosling, whose dream of "virtual code" that could run on any machine became Java, the Internet programming language. Through these and other lively portraits of figures as diverse as Dan Bricklin, who daydreamed his way into inventing VisiCalc while a student at Harvard Business School, to Richard Stallman, the messianic programming purist who insists that all software should be free, we see just what it takes to build amazing new worlds in code. Along the way, Go To describes the surprisingly prominent role of women programmers in the early years, the rise of "software engineering," the constant journey to make it easier for nonprofessionals to program, and even reveals where the term "beta" came from. Computer programming has come a long way from its almost accidental origins. Programmers are trained and schooled-less likely to be selected by happenstance or culled from the ranks of chess champions, a recruiting tactic of the early days. Computer science is now a respected academic field and the software industry employs nearly nine million professional programmers worldwide. Software is the digital embodiment of human intelligence that animates not only our personal computers and the Internet but also our telephones, credit card networks, airlines reservation systems, fuel injectors, kitchen appliances, and more. Yet the programmers of tomorrow-the artisans, craftsmen, bricklayers, and architects of the information age-are still engaged in a painstaking step-by-step endeavor, more handcraftmanship than machine magic. With keen analysis and deft storytelling, Steve Lohr shows us how these remarkable creators of software transformed the world, and points to the ways they will change our future.

In the information highway age, Just-In-Time Systems - JITS - are becoming increasingly visible: customers want to purchase rather than develop customized computing systems and they want these systems now. JITS will allow for developing systems at the right time, in the right place, and at the right ...

In the information highway age, Just-In-Time Systems - JITS - are becoming increasingly visible: customers want to purchase rather than develop customized computing systems and they want these systems now. JITS will allow for developing systems at the right time, in the right place, and at the right price to address the right needs. This is promoted by covenant relationships between customer and supplier; JITS developers recognize that all system development projects and their maintenance have commonalities. They can apply technical, operational, and managerial approaches to similar problems - the management structure or system components of a project, for example, may be applicable to similar projects and follow similar lifecycles. JITS developers, therefore, avoid "reinventing the wheel". JITS will not appear overnight; its adoption will only come through evolution, not revolution. This incremental growth does not, however, imply that it's not revolutionary in substance. Managers, designers, programmers, engineers, analysts, planners, librarians, quality assurance specialists, customers, users, and suppliers of computing systems can benefit from this book.

In our homes, our schools, and our businesses, computers play an ever-increasing role. But while most of us today can work a computer--albeit with the help of the ever-present computer software manual--we know little about what goes on inside the box and virtually nothing about software design or ...

In our homes, our schools, and our businesses, computers play an ever-increasing role. But while most of us today can work a computer--albeit with the help of the ever-present computer software manual--we know little about what goes on inside the box and virtually nothing about software design or the world of computer programming. In Patterns of Software, the respected software pioneer and computer scientist, Richard Gabriel, gives us an informative inside look at the world of software design and computer programming and the business that surrounds them. In this wide-ranging volume, Gabriel discusses such topics as what makes a successful programming language, how the rest of the world looks at and responds to the work of computer scientists, how he first became involved in computer programming and software development, what makes a successful software business, and why his own company, Lucid, failed in 1994, ten years after its inception. Perhaps the most interesting and enlightening section of the book is Gabriel's detailed look at what he believes are the lessons that can be learned from architect Christopher Alexander, whose books--including the seminal A Pattern Language--have had a profound influence on the computer programming community. Gabriel illuminates some of Alexander's key insights--"the quality without a name," pattern languages, habitability, piecemeal growth--and reveals how these influential architectural ideas apply equally well to the construction of a computer program. Gabriel explains the concept of habitability, for example, by comparing a program to a New England farmhouse and the surrounding structures which slowly grow and are modified according to the needs and desires of the people who live and work on the farm. "Programs live and grow, and their inhabitants--the programmers--need to work with that program the way the farmer works with the homestead." Although computer scientists and software entrepreneurs will get much out of this book, the essays are accessible to everyone and will intrigue anyone curious about Silicon Valley, computer programming, or the world of high technology.