The Technical and Social History of Software Engineering

Chapter 3. 1940 to 1949: Computing During World War II and the Postwar Era

The decade from 1940 to 1949 witnessed the first use of computers in warfare in all of human history. The need for high-speed calculations to handle encryption, decryption, logistics, ballistics, and other military purposes led to a rapid expansion in computer and software sophistication. Thousands of analog computers were used for naval gunnery, bombsights, and submarine torpedo aiming. By the end of the decade, computers had become useful and powerful military tools and were poised to expand into the commercial sector in the next decade. When the decade started, the word “computer” was a job title that was applied to human beings who performed complex calculations, sometimes ...