This is the landing page of the eponymous book. The publisher also has a page about the book where you can find a very concise summary, some endorsements (forthcoming), and technical details. Feel free to leave feedback on the book by contacting egdaylight "at" dijkstrascry "dot" com.
From the Back Cover
WHAT IS A COMPUTER PROGRAM?
Are you receptive to the multitude of answers to this seemingly simple question? Historical and philosophical reflections in this book will reveal that a computer program always had, and still has, several different meanings. Such epistemic pluralism is a feature of emerging fields, and computer science is still too young a field to be any different.
Even before the advent of Twitter, the wide dissemination of an idea in our Western world required a compact and attractive formulation. Examples in contemporary computer science are:
- Turing invented the computer.
- Full formal verification is possible.
Unfortunately, computer scientists promote, and some believe, these over-simplified statements themselves. Technically inaccurate accounts have been written about Turing's purported legacy and about allegedly important topics that carry his name (such as `Turing completeness' and `Turing universality'). Much needed rectifications are provided here for the sake of obtaining conceptual clarity and making computer science a slightly more mature discipline.