Important Applications

Abstract

While it is true that computers are extremely good at ‘number crunching’ and that they are extensively employed in scientific and technical establishments to do just that, it is also true that the vast majority of installed computer systems now are employed in more general information processing in commercial and industrial organisations. In practice, such restricted applications are a tiny subset of the information flow in any organisation. Infinitely more significant is that information which is transmitted verbally through meetings, conferences and casual contacts and by letters, memoranda, reports and handwritten notes. The ability of the computer to assist with processing verbal communications is coming (see Section 2.4); its ability to handle written information is with us already under the ill-defined headings of ‘text/word processing’ and ‘office automation’.