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Written by Allen Tucker , Geneva G. Belford See All

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: Jan 6, 2024 • Article History

tocTable of Contents
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foundations, hardware and software, and
their uses for processing information.
The discipline of computer science
includes the study of algorithms and data structures, computer and network
design, modeling data and information processes, and artificial intelligence.

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Computer science draws some of its foundations from mathematics and

engineering and therefore incorporates techniques from areas such as
queueing theory, probability and statistics, and electronic circuit design.
Computer science also makes heavy use of hypothesis testing and
experimentation during the conceptualization, design, measurement, and
refinement of new algorithms, information structures, and computer
architectures.

Computer science is considered as part of a family of five separate yet

interrelated disciplines: computer engineering, computer science, information
systems, information technology, and software engineering. This family has
come to be known collectively as the discipline of computing. These five
disciplines are interrelated in the sense that computing is their object of study,
but they are separate since each has its own research perspective and
curricular focus. (Since 1991 the Association for Computing Machinery [ACM],
the IEEE Computer Society [IEEE-CS], and the Association for Information
Systems [AIS] have collaborated to develop and update the taxonomy of these
five interrelated disciplines and the guidelines that educational institutions
worldwide use for their undergraduate, graduate, and research programs.)

The major subfields of computer science include the traditional study of

computer architecture, programming languages, and software development.
However, they also include computational science (the use of algorithmic
techniques for modeling scientific data), graphics and visualization, human-
computer interaction, databases and information systems, networks, and the
social and professional issues that are unique to the practice of computer
science. As may be evident, some of these subfields overlap in their activities
with other modern fields, such as bioinformatics and computational chemistry.
These overlaps are the consequence of a tendency among computer scientists
to recognize and act upon their field’s many interdisciplinary connections.

Development of computer science

Computer science emerged as an independent discipline in the early 1960s,
although the electronic digital computer that is the object of its study was
invented some two decades earlier. The roots of computer science lie primarily

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in the related fields of mathematics, electrical engineering, physics, and

management information systems.

Britannica Quiz

Computers and Technology Quiz

Mathematics is the source of two key concepts in the development of the

computer—the idea that all information can be represented as sequences of
zeros and ones and the abstract notion of a “stored program.” In the binary
number system, numbers are represented by a sequence of the binary digits 0
and 1 in the same way that numbers in the familiar decimal system are
represented using the digits 0 through 9. The relative ease with which two
states (e.g., high and low voltage) can be realized in electrical and electronic
devices led naturally to the binary digit, or bit, becoming the basic unit of data
storage and transmission in a computer system.

Electrical engineering provides the basics of circuit design—namely, the idea

that electrical impulses input to a circuit can be combined using Boolean
algebra to produce arbitrary outputs. (The Boolean algebra developed in the
19th century supplied a formalism for designing a circuit with binary input
values of zeros and ones [false or true, respectively, in the terminology of logic]
to yield any desired combination of zeros and ones as output.) The invention of
the transistor and the miniaturization of circuits, along with the invention of
electronic, magnetic, and optical media for the storage and transmission of
information, resulted from advances in electrical engineering and physics.

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Management information systems, originally called data processing systems,

provided early ideas from which various computer science concepts such as
sorting, searching, databases, information retrieval, and graphical user
interfaces evolved. Large corporations housed computers that stored
information that was central to the activities of running a business—payroll,
accounting, inventory management, production control, shipping, and
receiving.
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Theoretical work on computability,

which began in the 1930s, provided
the needed extension of these
advances to the design of whole
machines; a milestone was the 1936
specification of the Turing machine (a
theoretical computational model that
zoom_in
carries out instructions represented as
a series of zeros and ones) by the
British mathematician Alan Turing
and his proof of the model’s
computational power. Another
breakthrough was the concept of the
stored-program computer, usually
credited to Hungarian American
Alan Turing
mathematician John von Neumann. Alan Turing, 1951.
These are the origins of the computer
science field that later became known
as architecture and organization.

In the 1950s, most computer users worked either in scientific research labs or
in large corporations. The former group used computers to help them make
complex mathematical calculations (e.g., missile trajectories), while the latter
group used computers to manage large amounts of corporate data (e.g.,
payrolls and inventories). Both groups quickly learned that writing programs
in the machine language of zeros and ones was not practical or reliable. This
discovery led to the development of assembly language in the early 1950s,
which allows programmers to use symbols for instructions (e.g., ADD for
addition) and variables (e.g., X). Another program, known as an assembler,
translated these symbolic programs into an equivalent binary program whose
steps the computer could carry out, or “execute.”

Other system software elements known as linking loaders were developed to

combine pieces of assembled code and load them into the computer’s memory,
where they could be executed. The concept of linking separate pieces of code
was important, since it allowed “libraries” of programs for carrying out

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common tasks to be reused. This was a first step in the development of the
computer science field called software engineering.

Later in the 1950s, assembly language was found to be so cumbersome that the
development of high-level languages (closer to natural languages) began to
support easier, faster programming. FORTRAN emerged as the main high-
level language for scientific programming, while COBOL became the main
language for business programming. These languages carried with them the
need for different software, called compilers, that translate high-level language
programs into machine code. As programming languages became more
powerful and abstract, building compilers that create high-quality machine
code and that are efficient in terms of execution speed and storage
consumption became a challenging computer science problem. The design and
implementation of high-level languages is at the heart of the computer science
field called programming languages.

Increasing use of computers in the early 1960s provided the impetus for the
development of the first operating systems, which consisted of system-resident
software that automatically handled input and output and the execution of
programs called “jobs.” The demand for better computational techniques led to
a resurgence of interest in numerical methods and their analysis, an activity
that expanded so widely that it became known as computational science.

The 1970s and ’80s saw the emergence of powerful computer graphics devices,
both for scientific modeling and other visual activities. (Computerized
graphical devices were introduced in the early 1950s with the display of crude
images on paper plots and cathode-ray tube [CRT] screens.) Expensive
hardware and the limited availability of software kept the field from growing
until the early 1980s, when the computer memory required for bitmap
graphics (in which an image is made up of small rectangular pixels) became
more affordable. Bitmap technology, together with high-resolution display
screens and the development of graphics standards that make software less
machine-dependent, has led to the explosive growth of the field. Support for all
these activities evolved into the field of computer science known as graphics
and visual computing.

Closely related to this field is the design and analysis of systems that interact
directly with users who are carrying out various computational tasks. These
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systems came into wide use during the

1980s and ’90s, when line-edited
interactions with users were replaced
by graphical user interfaces (GUIs).
GUI design, which was pioneered by
Xerox and was later picked up by
zoom_in
Apple (Macintosh) and finally by
Microsoft (Windows), is important
because it constitutes what people see
and do when they interact with a
computing device. The design of
appropriate user interfaces for all
types of users has evolved into the
computer science field known as graphical user interface
The Xerox Alto was the first computer to
human-computer interaction (HCI). use graphical icons and a mouse to…
...(more)

The field of computer architecture and

organization has also evolved
dramatically since the first stored-program computers were developed in the
1950s. So called time-sharing systems emerged in the 1960s to allow several
users to run programs at the same time from different terminals that were
hard-wired to the computer. The 1970s saw the development of the first wide-
area computer networks (WANs) and protocols for transferring information at
high speeds between computers separated by large distances. As these
activities evolved, they coalesced into the computer science field called
networking and communications. A major accomplishment of this field was the
development of the Internet.

The idea that instructions, as well as data, could be stored in a computer’s

memory was critical to fundamental discoveries about the theoretical
behaviour of algorithms. That is, questions such as, “What can/cannot be
computed?” have been formally addressed using these abstract ideas. These
discoveries were the origin of the computer science field known as algorithms
and complexity. A key part of this field is the study and application of data
structures that are appropriate to different applications. Data structures, along
with the development of optimal algorithms for inserting, deleting, and
locating data in such structures, are a major concern of computer scientists
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because they are so heavily used in computer software, most notably in

compilers, operating systems, file systems, and search engines.

In the 1960s the invention of magnetic disk storage provided rapid access to
data located at an arbitrary place on the disk. This invention led not only to
more cleverly designed file systems but also to the development of database
and information retrieval systems, which later became essential for storing,
retrieving, and transmitting large amounts and wide varieties of data across
the Internet. This field of computer science is known as information
management.

Another long-term goal of computer science research is the creation of

computing machines and robotic devices that can carry out tasks that are
typically thought of as requiring human intelligence. Such tasks include
moving, seeing, hearing, speaking, understanding natural language, thinking,
and even exhibiting human emotions. The computer science field of intelligent
systems, originally known as artificial intelligence (AI), actually predates the
first electronic computers in the 1940s, although the term artificial intelligence
was not coined until 1956.

Three developments in computing in the early part of the 21st century—mobile

computing, client-server computing, and computer hacking—contributed to
the emergence of three new fields in computer science: platform-based
development, parallel and distributed computing, and security and
information assurance. Platform-based development is the study of the special
needs of mobile devices, their operating systems, and their applications.
Parallel and distributed computing concerns the development of architectures
and programming languages that support the development of algorithms
whose components can run simultaneously and asynchronously (rather than
sequentially), in order to make better use of time and space. Security and
information assurance deals with the design of computing systems and
software that protects the integrity and security of data, as well as the privacy
of individuals who are characterized by that data.

Finally, a particular concern of computer science throughout its history is the

unique societal impact that accompanies computer science research and
technological advancements. With the emergence of the Internet in the 1980s,
for example, software developers needed to address important issues related to
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information security, personal privacy, and system reliability. In addition, the

question of whether computer software constitutes intellectual property and
the related question “Who owns it?” gave rise to a whole new legal area of
licensing and licensing standards that applied to software and related artifacts.
These concerns and others form the basis of social and professional issues of
computer science, and they appear in almost all the other fields identified
above.

So, to summarize, the discipline of computer science has evolved into the
following 15 distinct fields:

Algorithms and complexity

Architecture and organization

Computational science

Graphics and visual computing

Human-computer interaction

Information management

Intelligent systems

Networking and communication

Operating systems

Parallel and distributed computing

Platform-based development

Programming languages

Security and information assurance

Software engineering

Social and professional issues

Computer science continues to have strong mathematical and engineering

roots. Computer science bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs
are routinely offered by postsecondary academic institutions, and these
programs require students to complete appropriate mathematics and
engineering courses, depending on their area of focus. For example, all

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undergraduate computer science majors must study discrete mathematics

(logic, combinatorics, and elementary graph theory). Many programs also
require students to complete courses in calculus, statistics, numerical analysis,
physics, and principles of engineering early in their studies.

Algorithms and complexity

An algorithm is a specific procedure for solving a well-defined computational
problem. The development and analysis of algorithms is fundamental to all
aspects of computer science: artificial intelligence, databases, graphics,
networking, operating systems, security, and so on. Algorithm development is
more than just programming. It requires an understanding of the alternatives
available for solving a computational problem, including the hardware,
networking, programming language, and performance constraints that
accompany any particular solution. It also requires understanding what it
means for an algorithm to be “correct” in the sense that it fully and efficiently
solves the problem at hand.

An accompanying notion is the design of a particular data structure that

enables an algorithm to run efficiently. The importance of data structures
stems from the fact that the main memory of a computer (where the data is
stored) is linear, consisting of a sequence of memory cells that are serially
numbered 0, 1, 2,…. Thus, the simplest data structure is a linear array, in which
adjacent elements are numbered with consecutive integer “indexes” and an
element’s value is accessed by its unique index. An array can be used, for
example, to store a list of names, and efficient methods are needed to
efficiently search for and retrieve a particular name from the array. For
example, sorting the list into alphabetical order permits a so-called binary
search technique to be used, in which the remainder of the list to be searched
at each step is cut in half. This search technique is similar to searching a
telephone book for a particular name. Knowing that the book is in alphabetical
order allows one to turn quickly to a page that is close to the page containing
the desired name. Many algorithms have been developed for sorting and
searching lists of data efficiently.

Although data items are stored consecutively in memory, they may be linked
together by pointers (essentially, memory addresses stored with an item to

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indicate where the next item or items in the structure are found) so that the
data can be organized in ways similar to those in which they will be accessed.
The simplest such structure is called the linked list, in which noncontiguously
stored items may be accessed in a pre-specified order by following the pointers
from one item in the list to the next. The list may be circular, with the last item
pointing to the first, or each element may have pointers in both directions to
form a doubly linked list. Algorithms have been developed for efficiently
manipulating such lists by searching for, inserting, and removing items.

Pointers also provide the ability to implement more complex data structures. A
graph, for example, is a set of nodes (items) and links (known as edges) that
connect pairs of items. Such a graph might represent a set of cities and the
highways joining them, the layout of circuit elements and connecting wires on
a memory chip, or the configuration of persons interacting via a social network.
Typical graph algorithms include graph traversal strategies, such as how to
follow the links from node to node (perhaps searching for a node with a
particular property) in a way that each node is visited only once. A related
problem is the determination of the shortest path between two given nodes on
an arbitrary graph. (See graph theory.) A problem of practical interest in
network algorithms, for instance, is to determine how many “broken” links can
be tolerated before communications begin to fail. Similarly, in very-large-scale
integration (VLSI) chip design it is important to know whether the graph
representing a circuit is planar, that is, whether it can be drawn in two
dimensions without any links crossing (wires touching).

The (computational) complexity of an algorithm is a measure of the amount of

computing resources (time and space) that a particular algorithm consumes
when it runs. Computer scientists use mathematical measures of complexity
that allow them to predict, before writing the code, how fast an algorithm will
run and how much memory it will require. Such predictions are important
guides for programmers implementing and selecting algorithms for real-world
applications.

Computational complexity is a continuum, in that some algorithms require

linear time (that is, the time required increases directly with the number of
items or nodes in the list, graph, or network being processed), whereas others
require quadratic or even exponential time to complete (that is, the time

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required increases with the number of items squared or with the exponential of
that number). At the far end of this continuum lie the murky seas of intractable
problems—those whose solutions cannot be efficiently implemented. For these
problems, computer scientists seek to find heuristic algorithms that can almost
solve the problem and run in a reasonable amount of time.

Further away still are those algorithmic problems that can be stated but are not
solvable; that is, one can prove that no program can be written to solve the
problem. A classic example of an unsolvable algorithmic problem is the halting
problem, which states that no program can be written that can predict whether
or not any other program halts after a finite number of steps. The unsolvability
of the halting problem has immediate practical bearing on software
development. For instance, it would be frivolous to try to develop a software
tool that predicts whether another program being developed has an infinite
loop in it (although having such a tool would be immensely beneficial).

Architecture and organization

Computer architecture deals with the design of computers, data storage
devices, and networking components that store and run programs, transmit
data, and drive interactions between computers, across networks, and with
users. Computer architects use parallelism and various strategies for memory
organization to design computing systems with very high performance.
Computer architecture requires strong communication between computer
scientists and computer engineers, since they both focus fundamentally on
hardware design.

At its most fundamental level, a computer consists of a control unit, an

arithmetic logic unit (ALU), a memory unit, and input/output (I/O)
controllers. The ALU performs simple addition, subtraction, multiplication,
division, and logic operations, such as OR and AND. The memory stores the
program’s instructions and data. The control unit fetches data and instructions
from memory and uses operations of the ALU to carry out those instructions
using that data. (The control unit and ALU together are referred to as the
central processing unit [CPU].) When an input or output instruction is
encountered, the control unit transfers the data between the memory and the
designated I/O controller. The operational speed of the CPU primarily

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determines the speed of the computer as a whole. All of these components—the

control unit, the ALU, the memory, and the I/O controllers—are realized with
transistor circuits.

Computers also have another level of memory called a cache, a small,

extremely fast (compared with the main memory, or random access memory
[RAM]) unit that can be used to store information that is urgently or frequently
needed. Current research includes cache design and algorithms that can
predict what data is likely to be needed next and preload it into the cache for
improved performance.

I/O controllers connect the computer to specific input devices (such as

keyboards and touch screen displays) for feeding information to the memory,
and output devices (such as printers and displays) for transmitting information
from the memory to users. Additional I/O controllers connect the computer to
a network via ports that provide the conduit through which data flows when
the computer is connected to the Internet.

Britannica Quiz

Computers and Technology Quiz

Linked to the I/O controllers are

secondary storage devices, such as a
disk drive, that are slower and have a
larger capacity than main or cache
zoom_in
memory. Disk drives are used for
maintaining permanent data. They can
be either permanently or temporarily
attached to the computer in the form
of a compact disc (CD), a digital video
USB flash drive inserted in a
disc (DVD), or a memory stick (also laptop
called a flash drive). USB flash drive inserted in a laptop. Such
devices continue to play an important…
...(more)

The operation of a computer, once a

program and some data have been
loaded into RAM, takes place as follows. The first instruction is transferred
from RAM into the control unit and interpreted by the hardware circuitry. For
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instance, suppose that the instruction is a string of bits that is the code for
LOAD 10. This instruction loads the contents of memory location 10 into the
ALU. The next instruction, say ADD 15, is fetched. The control unit then loads
the contents of memory location 15 into the ALU and adds it to the number
already there. Finally, the instruction STORE 20 would store that sum into
location 20. At this level, the operation of a computer is not much different
from that of a pocket calculator.

In general, programs are not just lengthy sequences of LOAD, STORE, and
arithmetic operations. Most importantly, computer languages include
conditional instructions—essentially, rules that say, “If memory location n
satisfies condition a, do instruction number x next, otherwise do instruction
y.” This allows the course of a program to be determined by the results of
previous operations—a critically important ability.

Finally, programs typically contain sequences of instructions that are repeated

a number of times until a predetermined condition becomes true. Such a
sequence is called a loop. For example, a loop would be needed to compute the
sum of the first n integers, where n is a value stored in a separate memory
location. Computer architectures that can execute sequences of instructions,
conditional instructions, and loops are called “Turing complete,” which means
that they can carry out the execution of any algorithm that can be defined.
Turing completeness is a fundamental and essential characteristic of any
computer organization.

Logic design is the area of computer science that deals with the design of
electronic circuits using the fundamental principles and properties of logic (see
Boolean algebra) to carry out the operations of the control unit, the ALU, the
I/O controllers, and other hardware. Each logical function (AND, OR, and
NOT) is realized by a particular type of device called a gate. For example, the
addition circuit of the ALU has inputs corresponding to all the bits of the two
numbers to be added and outputs corresponding to the bits of the sum. The
arrangement of wires and gates that link inputs to outputs is determined by the
mathematical definition of addition. The design of the control unit provides the
circuits that interpret instructions. Due to the need for efficiency, logic design
must also optimize the circuitry to function with maximum speed and has a
minimum number of gates and circuits.

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An important area related to architecture is the design of microprocessors,

which are complete CPUs—control unit, ALU, and memory—on a single
integrated circuit chip. Additional memory and I/O control circuitry are linked
to this chip to form a complete computer. These thumbnail-sized devices
contain millions of transistors that implement the processing and memory
units of modern computers.

VLSI microprocessor design occurs in a number of stages, which include

creating the initial functional or behavioral specification, encoding this
specification into a hardware description language, and breaking down the
design into modules and generating sizes and shapes for the eventual chip
components. It also involves chip planning, which includes building a “floor
plan” to indicate where on the chip each component should be placed and
connected to other components. Computer scientists are also involved in
creating the computer-aided design (CAD) tools that support engineers in the
various stages of chip design and in developing the necessary theoretical
results, such as how to efficiently design a floor plan with near-minimal area
that satisfies the given constraints.

Advances in integrated circuit

technology have been incredible. For
example, in 1971 the first
microprocessor chip (Intel
Corporation’s 4004) had only 2,300 zoom_in

transistors, in 1993 Intel’s Pentium

chip had more than 3 million
transistors, and by 2000 the number
of transistors on such a chip was about
50 million. The Power7 chip Moore's law
introduced in 2010 by IBM contained Moore's law. Gordon E. Moore observed
that the number of transistors on a…
...(more)
approximately 1 billion transistors.
The phenomenon of the number of
transistors in an integrated circuit
doubling about every two years is widely known as Moore’s law.

Fault tolerance is the ability of a computer to continue operation when one or

more of its components fails. To ensure fault tolerance, key components are

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often replicated so that the backup component can take over if needed. Such
applications as aircraft control and manufacturing process control run on
systems with backup processors ready to take over if the main processor fails,
and the backup systems often run in parallel so the transition is smooth. If the
systems are critical in that their failure would be potentially disastrous (as in
aircraft control), incompatible outcomes collected from replicated processes
running in parallel on separate machines are resolved by a voting mechanism.
Computer scientists are involved in the analysis of such replicated systems,
providing theoretical approaches to estimating the reliability achieved by a
given configuration and processor parameters, such as average time between
failures and average time required to repair the processor. Fault tolerance is
also a desirable feature in distributed systems and networks. For example, an
advantage of a distributed database is that data replicated on different network
hosts can provide a natural backup mechanism when one host fails.

Computational science
Computational science applies computer simulation, scientific visualization,
mathematical modeling, algorithms, data structures, networking, database
design, symbolic computation, and high-performance computing to help
advance the goals of various disciplines. These disciplines include biology,
chemistry, fluid dynamics, archaeology, finance, sociology, and forensics.
Computational science has evolved rapidly, especially because of the dramatic
growth in the volume of data transmitted from scientific instruments. This
phenomenon has been called the “big data” problem.

The mathematical methods needed for computational science require the

transformation of equations and functions from the continuous to the discrete.
For example, the computer integration of a function over an interval is
accomplished not by applying integral calculus but rather by approximating
the area under the function graph as a sum of the areas obtained from
evaluating the function at discrete points. Similarly, the solution of a
differential equation is obtained as a sequence of discrete points determined by
approximating the true solution curve by a sequence of tangential line
segments. When discretized in this way, many problems can be recast as an
equation involving a matrix (a rectangular array of numbers) solvable using
linear algebra. Numerical analysis is the study of such computational methods.
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Several factors must be considered when applying numerical methods: (1) the
conditions under which the method yields a solution, (2) the accuracy of the
solution, (3) whether the solution process is stable (i.e., does not exhibit error
growth), and (4) the computational complexity (in the sense described above)
of obtaining a solution of the desired accuracy.

The requirements of big-data scientific problems, including the solution of ever

larger systems of equations, engage the use of large and powerful arrays of
processors (called multiprocessors or supercomputers) that allow many
calculations to proceed in parallel by assigning them to separate processing
elements. These activities have sparked much interest in parallel computer
architecture and algorithms that can be carried out efficiently on such
machines.

Graphics and visual computing

Graphics and visual computing is the field that deals with the display and
control of images on a computer screen. This field encompasses the efficient
implementation of four interrelated computational tasks: rendering, modeling,
animation, and visualization. Graphics techniques incorporate principles of
linear algebra, numerical integration, computational geometry, special-
purpose hardware, file formats, and graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to
accomplish these complex tasks.

Applications of graphics include CAD,

fine arts, medical imaging, scientific
data visualization, and video games.
CAD systems allow the computer to be
used for designing objects ranging
from automobile parts to bridges to
zoom_in
computer chips by providing an
interactive drawing tool and an
engineering interface to simulation
and analysis tools. Fine arts
applications allow artists to use the
computer screen as a medium to
create images, cinematographic

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special effects, animated cartoons, and

brain cancer; magnetic resonance
television commercials. Medical imaging (MRI)
imaging applications involve the An image, produced by magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI), of a human…
...(more)
visualization of data obtained from
technologies such as X-rays and
magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs)
to assist doctors in diagnosing medical conditions. Scientific visualization uses
massive amounts of data to define simulations of scientific phenomena, such as
ocean modeling, to produce pictures that provide more insight into the
phenomena than would tables of numbers. Graphics also provide realistic
visualizations for video gaming, flight simulation, and other representations of
reality or fantasy. The term virtual reality has been coined to refer to any
interaction with a computer-simulated virtual world.

A challenge for computer graphics is the development of efficient algorithms

that manipulate the myriad of lines, triangles, and polygons that make up a
computer image. In order for realistic on-screen images to be presented, each
object must be rendered as a set of planar units. Edges must be smoothed and
textured so that their underlying construction from polygons is not obvious to
the naked eye. In many applications, still pictures are inadequate, and rapid
display of real-time images is required. Both extremely efficient algorithms and
state-of-the-art hardware are needed to accomplish real-time animation. (For
more technical details of graphics displays, see computer graphics.)

Human-computer interaction
Human-computer interaction (HCI) is concerned with designing effective
interaction between users and computers and the construction of interfaces
that support this interaction. HCI occurs at an interface that includes both
software and hardware. User interface design impacts the life cycle of software,
so it should occur early in the design process. Because user interfaces must
accommodate a variety of user styles and capabilities, HCI research draws on
several disciplines including psychology, sociology, anthropology, and
engineering. In the 1960s, user interfaces consisted of computer consoles that
allowed an operator directly to type commands that could be executed
immediately or at some future time. With the advent of more user-friendly
personal computers in the 1980s, user interfaces became more sophisticated,
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so that the user could “point and click” to send a command to the operating
system.

Thus, the field of HCI emerged to model, develop, and measure the
effectiveness of various types of interfaces between a computer application and
the person accessing its services. GUIs
Load enable users
Next Page to communicate with the
keyboard_arrow_down
computer by such simple means as pointing to an icon with a mouse or
touching it with a stylus or forefinger. This technology also supports
windowing environments on a computer screen, which allow users to work
with different applications simultaneously, one in each window.

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