One omission is Turing! Halmos gives JvN considerable credit for electronic computing without ever mentioning Turing or the connection between Turing’s universal machine and the stored-program computer. JvN knew Turing at Princeton, thought highly of his work, and offered him a position at IAS.
While the paper mentions the IAS in Princeton, it only briefly refers to the computer project which JvN directed, describing the IAS machine as “his electronic computer”. This is a surprisingly slight mention of a major project that ran for years and was highly influential (the project is the subject of George Dyson’s book “Turing’s Cathedral”, recommended).
While the paper mentions the IAS in Princeton, it only briefly refers to the computer project which JvN directed, describing the IAS machine as “his electronic computer”. This is a surprisingly slight mention of a major project that ran for years and was highly influential (the project is the subject of George Dyson’s book “Turing’s Cathedral”, recommended).