A History of OR and Computing
John C Ranyard · Journal of the Operational Research Society · 1988
I would stress that this is a history and not the history of computing and OR. Hopefully I may stimulate others to complete a more comprehensive account. This account is based on my attendance at a postgraduate Diploma Course in Electronic Computation at Leeds University in 1962/3, my experiences as a member of the OR Executive of British Coal Corporation since 1963, and some research into the early uses of computers for linear programming and simulationarguably the OR techniques that have benefited most from computers. It is also largely a practitioner's account, not only because of my own experience, but coincidentally because most material I have been able to research has been written by practitioners. Finally, it is largely how computers have affected OR, and not vice versa. I have divided my account into five periods: