Abstract :
This issue includes a special Comments, Queries, and Debates department by Martin Campbell-Kelly in which he explores an ongoing discussion regarding breadth versus depth in the history of computing and describes an exchange on the topic with Donald Knuth. This issue also features several articles that discuss unanticipated but ultimately influential uses of electronic computers. Specifically, Thomas Haigh, Mark Priestley, and Crispin Rope explore the development of the first computer-based implementation of the Monte Carlo algorithm; David Hemmendinger explores the development of computational techniques for solving the problem of color matching; and Eduardo Perez Molina uses patent records from the 1940s and 1950s to provide context for the revolution in computer graphics that began in the 1960s. Lastly, Ramesh Subramanian\´s article "Technology Policy and National Identity: The Microcomputer Comes to India" gives a history of an indigenous microcomputer produced by the Hindustan Computers Limited in the late 1970s.
