Информатика
А. П. Ершов писал об информатике как о фундаментальной естественной науке, изучающей процессы передачи и обработки информации, науке об информационных моделях, отражающих фундаментальное философское понятие "информация".
В качестве базовой категорий информатики Ершов рассматривал прежде всего понятия «программы». Натуральные сущности программирования и информатики, о которых говорил Ершов, являются категориями и ценностями, которыми руководствуются в своей деятельности члены научного сообщества. Фундаментальные сущности или категориями науки не являются вечными и неизменными. По мере развития науки ее сущности и категории постепенно видоизменяются и обогащаются новым содержанием и новыми значениями, которые позволяют ближе приблизиться к истине.
Кроме понятия программы к структурным категориям информатики сегодня можно отнести сети и сообщества. Сети и сообщества представляют собой примеры децентрализованных, эмерджентных и самоорганизующихся систем. Можно утверждать, что понятиями сети и сообщества тесно связаны еще одна категория информатики – самоорганизация. Важность этой категории получает все большее признание в окружающем мире. Информатика сообществ рассматривает множество взаимодействующих агентов вне зависимости от того, какова физическая природа этих агентов. Информатика - наука, изучающая хранение, обработку и передачу информации.
- Ershov, A. P. (1987). Informatics as a new subject in secondary schools in the USSR. Prospects, 17(4), 559–570. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02193675
Basic Concepts of Algorithms and Programming to Be Taught in a School Course in Informatics
- Ershov, A. P. (1988). Basic Concepts of Algorithms and Programming to Be Taught in a School Course in Informatics. BIT, 28(3), 397–405. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01941123
- Imagine you have to write a text that will be read next year by millions of children and be taught by tens of thousands of teachers. You are struggling over each line you write in an endless attempt to find a truthful and thoughtful formulation, cleared of your own sins and failures, your hesitations and uncertainty. You feel you are engaged in a Lutheran task - an exciting and frightening experience. Well, you may say, this is my own singular, personal story, I would agree, but the real point of generalization is that this kind of story must be a personal matter for every scholar of Informatics of Computer Scince. We cannot be mere witnesses of this exponentially developing computer penetration that, really, is changing the image and, perhaps, the substance of our societies. Every revolution has its own ideas, and we cannot be ignorant as to its roots.
Second, for such a giant country as the USSR, the computerization process will be a relatively long one. Computer classes and informatics courses must coexist peacefullly with traditional forms of teaching and training. On the other hand, the presence of computers must be felt equally by everybody. This is a constitutional requirement of the education system. These considerations have resulted in the concept of the computer class, i.e. a local one-room network of about 20 student work-stations with fully equipped personal computers, plus an extended teacher' s computer. A group (or half-group) visits a computer class for one organized 45 minutes lesson (or two lessons) and has unlimited access to the computers during the lesson. The frequency of such visits for a particular group is, obviously, quite another problem.
Aesthetics and the Human Factor in Programming
Ershov, A. P. (1972). Aesthetics and the Human Factor in Programming. Commun. ACM, 15(7), 501–505. https://doi.org/10.1145/361454.361458
In his work, the programmer is challenged to combine, with the ability of a first-class mathematician to deal in logical abstractions, a more practical, a more Edisonian talent, enabling him to build useful engines out of zeros and ones, alone. He must join the accuracy of a bank clerk with the acumen of a scout, and to these add the powers of fantasy of an author of detective stories and the sober practicality of a businessman. To top all this off, he must have a taste for collective work and a feeling for the corporate interests of his employer.
The programmer is the lynchpin of a second industrial revolution; as such he must possess a revolutionary way of thinking.
The creative nature of programming does not require special proof. Indeed, I may assert that, in its creative nature, programming goes a little further than most other professions, and comes close to mathematics and creative writing. In the majority of other professions, even if we put the tiger in the tank, we only tame the forces of nature. We simply use physical and biological phenomena, hopefully in a cleverly economical way, but without understanding their innermost principles. In programming, however, we go, in a certain sense, to the root. One of the theses of modern epistomology states that "we understand what we are able to program." This phrase vividly characterizes the "maximalism" of our profession.
