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47-798: The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics is a comprehensive one-volume reference resource for science research. First published in 1914, it is currently (as of 2024) in its 105th edition, published in 2024. It is known colloquially among chemists as the "Rubber Bible", as CRC originally stood for "Chemical Rubber Company". As late as the 1962–1963 edition (3604 pages), the Handbook contained myriad information for every branch of science and engineering. Sections in that edition include: Mathematics, Properties and Physical Constants, Chemical Tables, Properties of Matter, Heat, Hygrometric and Barometric Tables, Sound, Quantities and Units, and Miscellaneous. Mathematical Tables from Handbook of Chemistry and Physics

94-507: A computer terminal (until the 1990s) to a graphical user interface (GUI) computer. Computer terminals limited programmers to a single shell running in a command-line environment . During the 1970s, full-screen source code editing became possible through a text-based user interface . Regardless of the technology available, the goal is to program in a programming language . Programming language features exist to provide building blocks to be combined to express programming ideals. Ideally,

141-462: A list of integers could be called integer_list . In object-oriented jargon, abstract datatypes are called classes . However, a class is only a definition; no memory is allocated. When memory is allocated to a class and bound to an identifier , it is called an object . Object-oriented imperative languages developed by combining the need for classes and the need for safe functional programming . A function, in an object-oriented language,

188-532: A stored-program computer loads its instructions into memory just like it loads its data into memory. As a result, the computer could be programmed quickly and perform calculations at very fast speeds. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly built the ENIAC. The two engineers introduced the stored-program concept in a three-page memo dated February 1944. Later, in September 1944, John von Neumann began working on

235-401: A color display and keyboard that was packaged in a single console. The disk operating system was programmed using IBM's Basic Assembly Language (BAL) . The medical records application was programmed using a BASIC interpreter. However, the computer was an evolutionary dead-end because it was extremely expensive. Also, it was built at a public university lab for a specific purpose. Nonetheless,

282-509: A major contributor. The statements were English-like and verbose. The goal was to design a language so managers could read the programs. However, the lack of structured statements hindered this goal. COBOL's development was tightly controlled, so dialects did not emerge to require ANSI standards. As a consequence, it was not changed for 15 years until 1974. The 1990s version did make consequential changes, like object-oriented programming . ALGOL (1960) stands for "ALGOrithmic Language". It had

329-548: A process. The interpreter then loads the source code into memory to translate and execute each statement . Running the source code is slower than running an executable . Moreover, the interpreter must be installed on the computer. The "Hello, World!" program is used to illustrate a language's basic syntax . The syntax of the language BASIC (1964) was intentionally limited to make the language easy to learn. For example, variables are not declared before being used. Also, variables are automatically initialized to zero. Here

376-521: A profound influence on programming language design. Emerging from a committee of European and American programming language experts, it used standard mathematical notation and had a readable, structured design. Algol was first to define its syntax using the Backus–Naur form . This led to syntax-directed compilers. It added features like: Algol's direct descendants include Pascal , Modula-2 , Ada , Delphi and Oberon on one branch. On another branch

423-466: A programming language should: The programming style of a programming language to provide these building blocks may be categorized into programming paradigms . For example, different paradigms may differentiate: Each of these programming styles has contributed to the synthesis of different programming languages . A programming language is a set of keywords , symbols , identifiers , and rules by which programmers can communicate instructions to

470-494: A syntax that would likely fail IBM's compiler. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) developed the first Fortran standard in 1966. In 1978, Fortran 77 became the standard until 1991. Fortran 90 supports: COBOL (1959) stands for "COmmon Business Oriented Language". Fortran manipulated symbols. It was soon realized that symbols did not need to be numbers, so strings were introduced. The US Department of Defense influenced COBOL's development, with Grace Hopper being

517-847: A team of contributors whose work is coordinated by one or more editors, rather than by an individual author. Updated editions are usually published as needed, in some cases annually ( Whitaker's Almanack , Who's Who ). Reference works include textbooks , almanacs , atlases , bibliographies , biographical sources , catalogs such as library catalogs and art catalogs, concordances , dictionaries , directories such as business directories and telephone directories , discographies , encyclopedias , filmographies , gazetteers , glossaries , handbooks , indices such as bibliographic indices and citation indices , manuals , research guides , thesauruses , and yearbooks . Many reference works are available in electronic form and can be obtained as reference software , CD-ROMs , DVDs , or online through

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564-474: A technological improvement to refine the production of field-effect transistors (1963). The goal is to alter the electrical resistivity and conductivity of a semiconductor junction . First, naturally occurring silicate minerals are converted into polysilicon rods using the Siemens process . The Czochralski process then converts the rods into a monocrystalline silicon , boule crystal . The crystal

611-531: Is a computer program or data that is stored electronically, which is usually found on a computer, including information that is available on the Internet. Libraries offer numerous types of electronic resources including electronic texts such as electronic books and electronic journals , bibliographic databases , institutional repositories , websites , and software applications . Computer program A computer program in its human-readable form

658-546: Is an example computer program, in Basic, to average a list of numbers: Once the mechanics of basic computer programming are learned, more sophisticated and powerful languages are available to build large computer systems. Improvements in software development are the result of improvements in computer hardware . At each stage in hardware's history, the task of computer programming changed dramatically. In 1837, Jacquard's loom inspired Charles Babbage to attempt to build

705-418: Is assigned to a class. An assigned function is then referred to as a method , member function , or operation . Object-oriented programming is executing operations on objects . Object-oriented languages support a syntax to model subset/superset relationships. In set theory , an element of a subset inherits all the attributes contained in the superset. For example, a student is a person. Therefore,

752-453: Is called source code . Source code needs another computer program to execute because computers can only execute their native machine instructions . Therefore, source code may be translated to machine instructions using a compiler written for the language. ( Assembly language programs are translated using an assembler .) The resulting file is called an executable . Alternatively, source code may execute within an interpreter written for

799-408: Is intended to be found quickly when needed. Such works are usually referred to for particular pieces of information, rather than read beginning to end. The writing style used in these works is informative; the authors avoid opinions and the use of the first person, and emphasize facts. Indices are a common navigation feature in many types of reference works. Many reference works are put together by

846-442: Is known as the x86 series . The x86 assembly language is a family of backward-compatible machine instructions . Machine instructions created in earlier microprocessors were retained throughout microprocessor upgrades. This enabled consumers to purchase new computers without having to purchase new application software . The major categories of instructions are: VLSI circuits enabled the programming environment to advance from

893-427: Is then thinly sliced to form a wafer substrate . The planar process of photolithography then integrates unipolar transistors, capacitors , diodes , and resistors onto the wafer to build a matrix of metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) transistors. The MOS transistor is the primary component in integrated circuit chips . Originally, integrated circuit chips had their function set during manufacturing. During

940-510: The Analytical Engine . The names of the components of the calculating device were borrowed from the textile industry. In the textile industry, yarn was brought from the store to be milled. The device had a store which consisted of memory to hold 1,000 numbers of 50 decimal digits each. Numbers from the store were transferred to the mill for processing. The engine was programmed using two sets of perforated cards. One set directed

987-618: The Busicom calculator. Five months after its release, Intel released the Intel 8008 , an 8-bit microprocessor. Bill Pentz led a team at Sacramento State to build the first microcomputer using the Intel 8008: the Sac State 8008 (1972). Its purpose was to store patient medical records. The computer supported a disk operating system to run a Memorex , 3- megabyte , hard disk drive . It had

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1034-530: The Internet . Misplaced Pages , an online encyclopedia , is both the largest and the most-read reference work in history. In contrast to books that are loaned , a reference book or reference-only book in a library may only be used in the library and may not be borrowed from the library. Many such books are reference works (in the first sense), which are usually used briefly or photocopied from and, therefore, do not need to be borrowed. Keeping reference books in

1081-455: The 1960s, controlling the electrical flow migrated to programming a matrix of read-only memory (ROM). The matrix resembled a two-dimensional array of fuses. The process to embed instructions onto the matrix was to burn out the unneeded connections. There were so many connections, firmware programmers wrote a computer program on another chip to oversee the burning. The technology became known as Programmable ROM . In 1971, Intel installed

1128-592: The ENIAC project. On June 30, 1945, von Neumann published the First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC , which equated the structures of the computer with the structures of the human brain. The design became known as the von Neumann architecture . The architecture was simultaneously deployed in the constructions of the EDVAC and EDSAC computers in 1949. The IBM System/360 (1964) was a family of computers, each having

1175-600: The ENIAC took up to two months. Three function tables were on wheels and needed to be rolled to fixed function panels. Function tables were connected to function panels by plugging heavy black cables into plugboards . Each function table had 728 rotating knobs. Programming the ENIAC also involved setting some of the 3,000 switches. Debugging a program took a week. It ran from 1947 until 1955 at Aberdeen Proving Ground , calculating hydrogen bomb parameters, predicting weather patterns, and producing firing tables to aim artillery guns. Instead of plugging in cords and turning switches,

1222-571: The Earth's Atmosphere at Elevations up to 160 Kilometers". Later editions focus almost exclusively on chemistry and physics topics and eliminated much of the more "common" information. CRC Press is a leading publisher of engineering handbooks and references and textbooks across virtually all scientific disciplines. Reference work A reference work is a work, such as a paper , book or periodical (or their electronic equivalents ), to which one can refer for information . The information

1269-483: The computer program onto the chip and named it the Intel 4004 microprocessor . The terms microprocessor and central processing unit (CPU) are now used interchangeably. However, CPUs predate microprocessors. For example, the IBM System/360 (1964) had a CPU made from circuit boards containing discrete components on ceramic substrates . The Intel 4004 (1971) was a 4- bit microprocessor designed to run

1316-465: The computer. They follow a set of rules called a syntax . Programming languages get their basis from formal languages . The purpose of defining a solution in terms of its formal language is to generate an algorithm to solve the underlining problem. An algorithm is a sequence of simple instructions that solve a problem. The evolution of programming languages began when the EDSAC (1949) used

1363-434: The descendants include C , C++ and Java . BASIC (1964) stands for "Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code". It was developed at Dartmouth College for all of their students to learn. If a student did not go on to a more powerful language, the student would still remember Basic. A Basic interpreter was installed in the microcomputers manufactured in the late 1970s. As the microcomputer industry grew, so did

1410-647: The first stored computer program in its von Neumann architecture . Programming the EDSAC was in the first generation of programming language . Imperative languages specify a sequential algorithm using declarations , expressions , and statements : FORTRAN (1958) was unveiled as "The IBM Mathematical FORmula TRANslating system". It was designed for scientific calculations, without string handling facilities. Along with declarations , expressions , and statements , it supported: It succeeded because: However, non-IBM vendors also wrote Fortran compilers, but with

1457-539: The halt state. All present-day computers are Turing complete . The Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC) was built between July 1943 and Fall 1945. It was a Turing complete , general-purpose computer that used 17,468 vacuum tubes to create the circuits . At its core, it was a series of Pascalines wired together. Its 40 units weighed 30 tons, occupied 1,800 square feet (167 m ), and consumed $ 650 per hour ( in 1940s currency ) in electricity when idle. It had 20 base-10 accumulators . Programming

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1504-479: The language BCPL was replaced with B , and AT&T Bell Labs called the next version "C". Its purpose was to write the UNIX operating system . C is a relatively small language, making it easy to write compilers. Its growth mirrored the hardware growth in the 1980s. Its growth also was because it has the facilities of assembly language , but uses a high-level syntax . It added advanced features like: C allows

1551-400: The language. Basic pioneered the interactive session . It offered operating system commands within its environment: However, the Basic syntax was too simple for large programs. Recent dialects added structure and object-oriented extensions. Microsoft's Visual Basic is still widely used and produces a graphical user interface . C programming language (1973) got its name because

1598-410: The language. If the executable is requested for execution, then the operating system loads it into memory and starts a process . The central processing unit will soon switch to this process so it can fetch, decode, and then execute each machine instruction. If the source code is requested for execution, then the operating system loads the corresponding interpreter into memory and starts

1645-436: The library assures that they will always be available for use on demand. Some reference-only books are too valuable to permit borrowers to take them out. Reference-only items may be shelved in a reference collection located separately from circulating items. Some libraries consist entirely, or to a large extent, of books which may not be borrowed. These are the main types and categories of reference work: An electronic resource

1692-486: The operation and the other set inputted the variables. However, the thousands of cogged wheels and gears never fully worked together. Ada Lovelace worked for Charles Babbage to create a description of the Analytical Engine (1843). The description contained Note G which completely detailed a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers using the Analytical Engine. This note is recognized by some historians as

1739-443: The programmer to control which region of memory data is to be stored. Global variables and static variables require the fewest clock cycles to store. The stack is automatically used for the standard variable declarations . Heap memory is returned to a pointer variable from the malloc() function. In the 1970s, software engineers needed language support to break large projects down into modules . One obvious feature

1786-501: The project contributed to the development of the Intel 8080 (1974) instruction set . In 1978, the modern software development environment began when Intel upgraded the Intel 8080 to the Intel 8086 . Intel simplified the Intel 8086 to manufacture the cheaper Intel 8088 . IBM embraced the Intel 8088 when they entered the personal computer market (1981). As consumer demand for personal computers increased, so did Intel's microprocessor development. The succession of development

1833-446: The same instruction set architecture . The Model 20 was the smallest and least expensive. Customers could upgrade and retain the same application software . The Model 195 was the most premium. Each System/360 model featured multiprogramming —having multiple processes in memory at once. When one process was waiting for input/output , another could compute. IBM planned for each model to be programmed using PL/1 . A committee

1880-438: The set of students is a subset of the set of persons. As a result, students inherit all the attributes common to all persons. Additionally, students have unique attributes that other people do not have. Object-oriented languages model subset/superset relationships using inheritance . Object-oriented programming became the dominant language paradigm by the late 1990s. C++ (1985) was originally called "C with Classes". It

1927-507: The world's first computer program . In 1936, Alan Turing introduced the Universal Turing machine , a theoretical device that can model every computation. It is a finite-state machine that has an infinitely long read/write tape. The machine can move the tape back and forth, changing its contents as it performs an algorithm . The machine starts in the initial state, goes through a sequence of steps, and halts when it encounters

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1974-478: Was designed to expand C's capabilities by adding the object-oriented facilities of the language Simula . An object-oriented module is composed of two files. The definitions file is called the header file . Here is a C++ header file for the GRADE class in a simple school application: A constructor operation is a function with the same name as the class name. It is executed when the calling operation executes

2021-437: Was formed that included COBOL , Fortran and ALGOL programmers. The purpose was to develop a language that was comprehensive, easy to use, extendible, and would replace Cobol and Fortran. The result was a large and complex language that took a long time to compile . Computers manufactured until the 1970s had front-panel switches for manual programming. The computer program was written on paper for reference. An instruction

2068-543: Was originally published as a supplement to the handbook up to the 9th edition (1952); afterwards, the 10th edition (1956) was published separately as CRC Standard Mathematical Tables . Earlier editions included sections such as "Antidotes of Poisons", "Rules for Naming Organic Compounds", "Surface Tension of Fused Salts", "Percent Composition of Anti-Freeze Solutions", "Spark-gap Voltages", "Greek Alphabet", "Musical Scales", "Pigments and Dyes", "Comparison of Tons and Pounds", "Twist Drill and Steel Wire Gauges" and "Properties of

2115-408: Was represented by a configuration of on/off settings. After setting the configuration, an execute button was pressed. This process was then repeated. Computer programs also were automatically inputted via paper tape , punched cards or magnetic-tape . After the medium was loaded, the starting address was set via switches, and the execute button was pressed. A major milestone in software development

2162-543: Was the invention of the Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) circuit (1964). Following World War II , tube-based technology was replaced with point-contact transistors (1947) and bipolar junction transistors (late 1950s) mounted on a circuit board . During the 1960s , the aerospace industry replaced the circuit board with an integrated circuit chip . Robert Noyce , co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor (1957) and Intel (1968), achieved

2209-405: Was to decompose large projects physically into separate files . A less obvious feature was to decompose large projects logically into abstract data types . At the time, languages supported concrete (scalar) datatypes like integer numbers, floating-point numbers, and strings of characters . Abstract datatypes are structures of concrete datatypes, with a new name assigned. For example,

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