The Product - Software
Computer software is the product that software professionals build. It encompasses programs that execute within a computer of any size and architecture, documents that encompass hardcopy and virtual forms, and data that encompasses numbers and text, but also includes representations of pictorial, video, and audio information. The following topic categories are presented:
The Nature of Software
The Nature of Software Engineering
Books
The Nature of Software
Software Disasters
If you think bad things can't happen when software fails, this is the site to visit. Many of our industry's more infamous horror stories are covered. In addition, a worthwhile book by Robert Glass (Software Runaways: Monumental Software Disasters, Prentice Hall, 1998) discusses 16 infamous software projects.
Forces shaping the computer industry
An older, but still worthwhile, article by Jesse Berst that discusses five forces that will shape the future directions of the computer industy.
High-Pressure Steam Engines and Computer Software
Nancy Leveson (an expert of software safety) has written an intriguing essay that is well worth reading. It can de downloaded from her site.
Unified Theory of Software Evolution
An easily understood article that describes the basic intellectual underpinnings of Lehman's theory of the life cycle of computer programs. Dozens of additional references and many downloadable papers can be found at FEAST.
Shareware/Freeware Library
This library includes dozens of subcategories and tens of thousands of apps. One of the most comprehensive software libraries on the net.
The Nature of Software Engineering
CiteSeer
This "scientific literature digital library" is one of the Web's best sources for softare engineering research. Access to thousands of technical papers that are organized using an intriguing networked arraned by reference. Highly recommended for the serious researcher.
This site presents hundreds of articles on a wide array of software engineering topics. In addition, useful information on books, tools, and other SE links is presented.
ACM Digital Library
The ACM has created the ACM Digital Library, enabling you to download the full text of articles and papers in many ACM publications. There is a fee for this service, and it is open only to ACM members.
Computer Science Bibliographies
The basis for a solid understanding of computer software and software engineering lies in computer science. A collection of close to 600 bibliographies in the field of computer science, comprising about 330,000 references.
Books 
There are literally thousands of books written about computer software. The vast majority discuss programming languages or software applications, but a few discuss software itself. Pressman and Herron (Software Shock, Dorset House, 1991) present an early discussion (directed at the layman) of software and the way professionals build it. Negroponte's (Being Digital, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. , 1995) best-selling book provides a view of computing and its overall impact in the 21st century. DeMarco (Why Does Software Cost So Much? Dorset House, 1995) has produced a collection amusing and insightful essays on software and the process through which it is developed. Books by Norman (The Invisible Computer, MIT Press, 1998) and Bergman (Information Appliances and Beyond, Academic Press/Morgan Kaufmann, 2000) suggest that the widespread impact of the PC will decline as information appliances and pervasive computing connect everyone in the industrialized world and almost every “appliance” that they own to a new Internet infrastructure.
Minasi (The Software Conspiracy: Why Software Companies Put out Faulty Products, How They Can Hurt You, and What You Can Do, McGraw-Hill, 2000) argues that the “modern scourge” of software bugs can be eliminated and suggests ways to accomplish this. Compaine (Digital Divide: Facing a Crisis or Creating a Myth, MIT Press, 2001) argues that the “divide” between those who have access to information resources (e.g., the Web) and those that do not is narrowing as we move into the first decade of this century.
