[SIGCIS-Members] New Book on Software History

[James Cortada]

What a great topic to write on.  Also, you may have picked the perfect
publisher for this book.  Congrats on both accounts.  Jim Cortada

On Mon, Oct 4, 2021 at 1:06 PM Tracy, Kim <tracy at rose-hulman.edu> wrote:

> SIGCIS,
>
>
>
> I’m pleased announce my book on software history has been published with
> ACM Books.  It is titled *Software: A Technical History* and is a
> textbook for students of computing to understand the history of software.
> If you have access to the ACM Digital Library (DL), then you likely already
> have free access to it: https://dl.acm.org/doi/book/10.1145/3477339.  It
> is also available via Amazon
> <https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/145038725X/> and Barnes and Noble
> <https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/software-kim-w-tracy/1140205842?ean=9781450387255>.
>   It’s only $34.95 as a paperback, but I’m hoping most students studying
> computing will have free access through their institution’s ACM DL
> subscription.
>
>
>
> I wrote the book because I started teaching the history of computation as
> a special topics course and it became clear to me that much of the most
> important part, software, was barely covered in most texts from a technical
> point of view.  I began developing my own materials and it became clear
> that not only was this material not covered in most curricula, it was
> becoming increasingly important as students build on layers of pre-existing
> software without much understanding of how it was built or its design
> assumptions.   Students studying computer security are faced with these
> layers of pre-existing software that are often put to unpredicted uses
> which exposes new vulnerabilities.  An intent is that students will be able
> to better reason about software as a technology and better predict where it
> is going, why it succeeds, and why it fails.    I include as many exercises
> as I could so that students can explore interesting corners of software
> history that I couldn’t cover in the book.
>
>
>
> I’d appreciate any feedback on it, and, of course, any Amazon or Barnes
> and Noble reviews you’d be willing to write.
>
>
>
> SIGCIS has helped provide a lot of interesting examples over the years,
> some of which you may recognize as exercises. . . .
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> --Kim
>
>
>
>
>
> *Kim W. Tracy *
>
> Visiting Asst. Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering
>
> (pronouns: he, him)
>
> *ROSE**-HULMAN* *INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY*
>
> 5500 Wabash Avenue  |  Terre Haute,  IN  47803-3999
>
> Room: Moench D216   | tracy at rose-hulman.edu
>
> Phone:  812.877.8343  |  Fax:  812.872.6060
>
> www.rose-hulman.edu
>
>
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-- 
James W. Cortada
Senior Research Fellow
Charles Babbage Institute
University of Minnesota
jcortada at umn.edu
608-274-6382
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