Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

110 computer virus• What is the best way to design an operating system,including the arrangement of different layers of theoperating system such as the hardware-specific drivers,kernel (essential functions), and interfaces (shellsor visual environments)? (See operating system,kernel, device driver, and shell.)• What should be emphasized in designing a programminglanguage? How does one specify the grammarof statements the declaration and handling of datatypes, and the mechanism for handling functions orprocedures? (See Backus-Naur form, data types,and procedures and functions.)• What considerations should be emphasized in designinga compiler for a given language? (See compiler.)• How should a network be organized, and what protocolsshould be used for transferring data? (Seenetwork, Internet, data communications, telecommunications,and tcp/ip.)Specific Application AreasThe general principles and tools must then be applied to avariety of application areas including:• text processing (see word processor, text editor,and font)• graphics (see computer graphics and image processing)• database management, including file structures andfile access (such as indexing and hashing), and databasearchitecture (relational databases) (see databasemanagement system, sql, and xml).• business data processing issues, including the designof MIS (management information systems) and decisionsupport systems• web applications, including commercial applications(see e-commerce), multimedia, database access, integrationof Web services (see bioinformatics serviceorientedarchitecture, mashups, and web 2.0 andbeyond), and appropriate programming techniques(see Ajax and scripting languages.)• scientific programming issues, including data acquisition,maintaining accuracy in calculations, andcreating visualizations driven by the data (see dataacquisition, numeric data and scientific computingapplications.)• user interface design (designing the interactionbetween human beings and the operating system orapplication) (see user interface)• the broad area of artificial intelligence, which affectsways of representing information and modeling reasoningprocesses (see artificial intelligence, neuralnetwork, expert systems, and knowledgerepresentation.)• robotics and control systems (an older term, “cybernetics,”has also been used for this field) (see roboticsand cybernetics.)Clearly the concerns of computer science overlap a numberof related fields. The design of computer hardware isoften considered to be computer engineering, but designersof hardware must be familiar with the algorithms that willbe used to operate it (see also computer engineering).Both artificial intelligence and user interface design areaffected by cognitive science (or psychology), the study ofhuman thought processes. Biology both inspires and is illuminatedby artificial life simulations, genetic algorithms,and neural networks. The most abstract questions of informationprocessing touch on the field of information science(or information theory).History of the FieldThe early computer pioneers such as Alan Turing, J. PresperEckert, and John Mauchly brought backgrounds inmathematics or engineering (see Turing, Alan; Eckert,J. Presper; and Mauchly, John). By the 1960s, however,a discipline and curriculum for computer science began toemerge. By the late 1990s more than 175 departments inAmerican and Canadian universities offered a doctorate incomputer science, with about a thousand new Ph.D.s beinggranted each year. However, in the following decade thenumber of students majoring in computer science declinedby about 50 percent. (See education in the computerfield for more details.)The traditional computer science field emphasizes thetheory of data representation, algorithms, and system architecture.In recent years a more practically oriented curriculumhas emerged as an alternative. Under the titles of“Information Technology” or “Information Systems,” thiscurriculum emphasizes application areas such as managementinformation systems, database management, systemadministration, and Web development.Further ReadingAssociation for Computing Machinery (ACM). Available online.URL: http://www.acm.org. Accessed June 24, 2007.Biermann, Alan W. Great Ideas of Computer Science with JAVA.Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2001.Computer Science [resources]. University of Albany Libraries.Available online. URL: http://library.albany.edu/subject/csci.htm. Accessed June 24, 2007.Dale, Nell, and John Lewis. Computer Science Illuminated. 3rd ed.Sudbury, Mass.: Jones & Bartlett, 2006.Hillis, Daniel W. The Pattern on the Stone: The Simple Ideas ThatMake Computers Work. New York: Basic Books, 1998.IEEE Computer Society. Available online. URL: http://www.computer.org/portal/site/ieeecs/index.jsp.Accessed June 24,2007.computer virusA computer virus is a program that is designed to copyitself into other programs. When the other programs arerun, they carry out the virus’s instructions, either instead ofor in addition to their own. Since one of the primary tasks