ron@uokvax.UUCP (05/03/84)
#N:uokvax:1300003:000:2018 uokvax!ron May 2 20:58:00 1984 i just finished a new book, 'alan turing, the enigma'. i highly recommend it to anyone who wants to read a really good, in depth book about turing. it covers turing's entire life, and then some. the main topics are: his ancestory, then his childhood his pre-college schooling his college schooling his paper, 'computable numbers' (= the turing machine) his work (and others) on the enigma his work (and others, ie von neuman etc. ) on computers his trial for homosexuality his death (suicide) after his death the math is not too complex. i'm a typical graduating CS major, who still runs away from large integrals, but it wasn't over my head. in fact, i learned some new things. the author was andrew hodges, (phd at cambridge in physics, i believe). the book is good if you want to simply read about turing's life, or if you want to know about the turing machine, or if you want to know about the enigma, or if you want to know about the 'race' to build the first 'real' computer. it covered all of these topics rather well. another overriding theme was turings homosexuality, and his place (or lack thereof) in society. turing was a INTERESTING person(gay, atheist, brilliant, VERY absent minded, etc. etc.). i could go on and on singing praises for the book, but i'll just say i thought it was one of the better books i' ve read in a while. an interesting angle comes from the fact the author is also homosexual, and he provides many insights as to what turing had gone through. seems like i learned a lot about many different things reading this book: turing, the goings on between mathematicians, the life of a homosexual, all about england during the WWII and on and on and on.... in summary: the book is called 'alan turing, the enigma', by andrew hodges. it's published by 'simon and schuster'. i think it's only out in hardback right now, (i got it out of a library) for around $22.00 or so. well worth reading to anyone who cares about the roots of computer science. ron