Thus, the publication of this paper laid the foundations of both theoretical
and practical computer science: many theoreticians are still "running" on
Turing's "hardware", and it's fair to say that Turing's universal machine was
the first virtual machine + interpreter. If ever there was a date that should
be commemorated as the birth of computer science as we now know it,
November 12th, 1936 would seem to be an appropriate choice.
Which means that today (Wednesday, November 12th, 1986) marks our fields's 50th
anniversary.
---Jim des Rivieres
(Another public service announcement brought to you by
the Knights of the Lambda Calculus.)
--
Jim des Rivieres CSNet: je...@ai.toronto.edu
Department of Computer Science ARPA: jeem%ai.toronto.edu@csnet-relay
University of Toronto UUCP: je...@utai.uucp
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 1A4 {ihnp4,decvax,decwrl}!utcsri!utai!jeem