Operational Research and Computers: A Personal View

Lord Blackett played a vital part in the development of O.R. as an identifiable discipline. He was also influential in promoting the early development of computers. I hope that he would have approved of current efforts to make computational O.R. easier to use. Some developments of the last decade are reviewed, with particular reference to optimization methodology. Comments are also made on current trends, and the relationship between simulation and analytical models.