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of these projects, although I saw evidence that they were
addressed in other Norwest projects.
Dr. McDermott defined computer science as "the study of what
can be accomplished by various classes of algorithm on various
classes of computer architecture in a certain amount of time, or
using memory in a certain way."40 He stated that these limitations
make computer science a "science". Dr. McDermott testified that in
software development the issue is rarely whether something can be
done at all,41 but rather, whether something can be done given
constraints, particularly in the computer environment, e.g., the
type of hardware, the programming language, the degree of
reliability, or the level of security.
In each of the Norwest activities (other than the Debit Card
project), Dr. McDermott found that the programmers were attempting
to "push a little bit beyond the current state of the art in order
to produce their next product", and the question was "whether
[fairly familiar elements] * * * could be put together in a
40 By "algorithm" Dr. McDermott referred to the steps a
computer is supposed to execute; and by "architecture" he
referred to the types of elementary steps that are available.
The "time" referred to both the time necessary to develop a
program and the time necessary for a program to process the
selected task.
41 Dr. McDermott agreed that none of the Norwest projects
confronted the question of whether they could be done at all. He
stated that Norwest was more concerned with whether it was
"technically possible to do this with the resources available,
that is, with controllable development costs, manageable schedule
delays, and acceptable performance when completed".
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