The speed and storage capacity of present-day computers have stimulated the development of numerical techniques allowing the investigation of three-dimensional gas dynamical problems of astronomical interest. Of the problems that can be attacked with these techniques, that of the formation of binaries has historically attracted the greatest interest. Several investigators have therefore tackled this problem, and their efforts will be discussed here insofar as they relate to the formation of close binaries. Earlier work, including the classical investigations of Kelvin, Poincaré, Jeans, and Cartan, have been reviewed by Chandrasekhar (1969) and Tassoul (1978).