Computer science

Computer science (abbreviated CS or compsci) encompasses a variety of topics that relates to computation, like abstract analysis of algorithms, formal grammars, and subjects such as programming languages, program design, software, computer hardware, artificial intelligence, and numerical analysis. By definition, computer science is the accumulated knowledge through scientific methodology by computation or by the use of the computer.

The name of the field

The name computer science immediately gives the impression that the field is the study of computers, the everyday machines that run programs and perform computations. Nonetheless, the field (as noted above) is both wider and more abstract than this name would suggest. Alternate names such as computation science have been proposed, but the traditional name remains the most common.

Related Topics:
Computers - Programs - Computations

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Danish scientist Peter Naur thus suggested the term datalogy, to reflect the fact that the scientific discipline revolves around data and data treatment, while not necessarily involving computers. The first scientific institution applying the datalogy term was DIKU, the Department of Datalogy at the University of Copenhagen, founded in 1969, with Peter Naur being the first professor in datalogy. The term is used mainly in the Nordic countries.

Related Topics:
Danish - Peter Naur - Scientific discipline - Data - Data treatment - Scientific institution - DIKU - University of Copenhagen - 1969 - Professor - Nordic countries

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In French, the discipline is named informatique, in German Informatik, in Spanish informática, in Dutch and Italian informatica, in Polish informatyka, in Russian информатика and in Greek Πληροφορική. However, informatics in English is not directly synonymous with computer science; it is actually more equivalent with information science.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~