History Of Data Processing Essay

Data processing is a shop that works in many different working fields. One thing you do in data processing is learning to computer programming. In my shop we are learning to program in Visual Basic and QuickBasic. Programming is used to tell a computer what to do. Using code you can make programs that can answer math problems, which would take someone, days to calculate in a brief second. In data processing we also learn to word process. Word processing is taking written text and being able to save and manipulate the text as desired. We also use databases in organizing large sums of information. Another thing we learn to do is make web sites, using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In prehistoric times Data Processing was done with no machines. Machines did not exist at this time. People had just started thinking, and creating ways to organize the little amount of information they had. Using many different forms of languages, they engraved most of their information into stone, or painted with animal blood on cave walls and large stones. These engravings and drawing were the first real usage of word processing, which is a large part of data processing. It was not until the first account of written history, and the creation of machines that things could be processed a lot faster and accurately. Data Processing started to grow and have worth. During the year A.D. 300 data processing started to grow. The first true calculator was invented called the soroban, which was invented by the Chinese.# A strobe was a tool made of rows of pebbles, used for basic addition and subtraction. Japan also had their own version of the soroban, but it was only a little different. The soroban is one of the reasons that we have calculators today. When machines were finally developed around 1886 when Charles Babbage invented the Difference Engine. This machine used gears to do math and calculated complicated things very quickly. Most people thought that the Difference Engine Babbage was worth nothing, but a few people thought that it was the start of a great thing. One person who was very interested in the engine was Mr. Wilkins accounted in Babbage’s Journal. He talked with Babbage for days about his invention and was really the only person who thought it was advancement in calculation technology. From machines like this we grew too better, small, and more efficient calculation tools. Present day data processing is now done mostly on a computer. Computers completely revolutionized and changed data processing. The first successful computer was invented by an American inventor during the year 1888. Herman Hollerith, who devised a punch card system, used electronic charged nails that when a card passed threw it would create a circuit, which another machines would read and record it. This was later used to sum up the censuses. The first digital computer was invented by John Atanasoff during the year 1944. Atanasoff was a mathematician and physics at the time. This computer is many times faster and is where all computers today were started and influenced by. Instead of just using analog hardware, digital hardware. This hardware made the computer use half as much power, and made them 3 times smaller. The first general-purpose computer was created by two engineers during the year of 1945; the computer was called Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC). ENIAC was invented by Developed by John Presper and John W. Mauchly. ENIAC took up one thousand five hundred feet and was 1000 times faster then all the other computers created before it. It also consumed so much power that it would make the light in Philadelphia dim, that’s how much power it would take to run it. The next really big advancement in computer took place around 1951 when Eckert and Mauchly completed a more advanced computer called UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer), which ended up being the first commercial computer. The first UNIVAC was installed at the U.S. Census bureau in June 1951. The types of computer we use today are called Personal Computers (PC’s). Two young Americans, Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak, who later founded Apple Computer, Inc created PC’s around 1975. These computers were much cheaper and finally became available to people. In the past, computers were only available to scientist because of the price, and how hard they were to understand how to work with them. The personal computer was later revolutionized by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975 when they created the operating systems MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) which sold more then Apple sold in one week then they did over a year. With their new operating system they were unstoppable. Many other programs were created as time went on. One very important program that was created was the word processor. The word processor was first created in the mid 1980s which was an efficient was to organized words. It was placed in almost every computer. Many other advancement happen everyday. Computers always seem to be getting faster and increase in memory. People also expected the computer to become bigger but in reality ended up just getting smaller and smaller over time. As time passes by more advanced, and efficient programs are created, and better operating systems invented. Who knows where the computer will end up in the future? Data processing also has many different things that are new to it. One new thing in data processing is word processing. Word processing is taking written or thought and putting the text in to a computer program which always you to print, edit, and make it look business format. Word processing can be used to create many different business standard documents. Using Microsoft Word, which is the business standard program for businesses, you can make resumes look like a million dollars, and memos looking like they were met to be written in stone. In data processing we also make an assortments of databases. Databases can be used for many different things. One-way databases (Which we create using Microsoft Access) are used, is for  organizing large sums of information and help with the processing of that information. Databases in business’s are used a lot of times to create programs for barcode machines with all the prices in the machines. Have you ever been to market basket or your local food store and looked at the screen, which sums up all of your purchases, well databases are what make that work. Data processing also has a new thing called the Internet, which is mainly made with HTML programming language. Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) is mainly used for the Internet because you can put a lot of information into a small file. When you put a web site that was programmed in HTLM code on the Internet, that file can be downloaded very quickly over a slow Internet connection. Last but not least in data processing now uses the computer to create worksheets. Worksheets are used to do many different things but mainly used to do accounting for a company or small business. Worksheets are a quick and easy way to sum up many different businesses accounts receivable and debit they have. Then after you figure it all out with formulas, you can chart the whole thing out and publish it so that the whole world can see it on the Internet (if you want it to be published). In conclusion, data processing has not really changed over the times it has just become faster, and more efficient. As time goes by who knows how much easier it will be to process large amount of information, we the human probably wont even any of it because it will all be done by the computer automatically. But who knows where things will go with data processing. We are always doing, and making better things.