This book reviews the present understanding of the history of software and establishes an agenda for further research. By exploring this current understanding, the authors identify the fundamental elements of software. The problems and questions addressed in the book range from purely technical to societal issues. Thus, the articles presented offer a fresh view of this history with new categories and interrelated themes, comparing and contrasting software with artefacts in other disciplines, so as to ascertain in what ways software is similar to and different from other technologies.This volume is based on the international conference "Mapping the History of Computing: Software Issues", held in April 2000 at the Heinz Nixdorf Museums Forum in Paderborn, Germany.

The papers in this volume were presented at a conference that was designed to map out historical study needs in one area of the history of computing, namely, software. The Paderbom conference was sponsored by the Heinz Nixdorf Muse- umsForum and co-sponsored by the Charles Babbage Institute and the Heinz Nixdorf Institute of the University of Paderbom. The idea for the conference emerged from the consideration of a larger concept that was to prepare a new handbook on the history of computing. Believing that preparation of the handbook would encounter obstacles in some areas of computing that have not received adequate attention from historians, the originators of the idea of the handbook decided on aseries of mapping conferences to try to overcome the obstacles, of which the Paderbom conference is the first. The organizers of the conference invited a group of historians, sociologists, and computer scientists to present pa- pers and comments about a selected set of issues in the history of software. The organizing committee consisted of William Aspray (Computing Research Asso- ciation, Washington, D. C. ), Martin Campbell-Kelly (University of Warwick, U. K. ), Ulf Hashagen (Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum, Paderbom), Reinhard Keil- Slawik (Heinz Nixdorf Institute, University of Paderbom), Michael S. Mahoney (Princeton University) and Arthur L. Norberg (Charies Babbage Institute, Uni ver- sity of Minnesota).

This history of computing focuses not on chronology (what came first and who deserves credit for it) but on the actual architectures of the first machines that made electronic computing a practical reality. The book covers computers built in the United States, Germany, England, and Japan. It makes clear that similar concepts were often pursued simultaneously and that the early researchers explored many architectures beyond the von Neumann architecture that eventually became canonical. The contributors include not only historians but also engineers and computer pioneers.An introductory chapter describes the elements of computer architecture and explains why "being first" is even less interesting for computers than for other areas of technology. The essays contain a remarkable amount of new material, even on well-known machines, and several describe reconstructions of the historic machines. These investigations are of more than simply historical interest, for architectures designed to solve specific problems in the past may suggest new approaches to similar problems in today's machines.Contributors: Titiimaea F. Ala'ilima, Lin Ping Ang, William Aspray, Friedrich L. Bauer, Andreas Brennecke, Chris P. Burton, Martin Campbell-Kelly, Paul Ceruzzi, I. Bernard Cohen, John Gustafson, Wilhelm Hopmann, Harry D. Huskey, Friedrich W. Kistermann, Thomas Lange, Michael S. Mahoney, R. B. E. Napper, Seiichi Okoma, Hartmut Petzold, Raul Rojas, Anthony E. Sale, Robert W. Seidel, Ambros P. Speiser, Frank H. Sumner, James F. Tau, Jan Van der Spiegel, Eiiti Wada, Michael R. Williams."