12596388
The University
of South Africa
HUMAN
COMPUTER
INTERACTION
Assignment 2
, Question 1
Historical Context of Human Computer Interaction
1. 1) These individuals whom performed
calculations during the middle ages were
referred to as ‘computers’, hence any
method or tool that performs a sort of
mathematical operation to resolve
problems can be referred to as
computing.
1.2) The English Polymath Charles Babbage
created The Difference Engine used to perform
calculations on a specific 6th degree polynomial
and the first device to resemble a computing
device The Analytical Engine.
1.3) The predecessor to all high-level
programming languages is IBM’s FORTRAN an
imperative ,strong static programming
language designed by John Backus to enhance
high performance computing in computers
used in scientific environments.