"World's First Computer"
-
I don't know! Google defines it as: "an electronic device which is capable of receiving information (data) in a particular form and of performing a sequence of operations in accordance with a predetermined but variable set of procedural instructions (program) to produce a result in the form of information or signals." But Wiki says: "A computer is a general purpose device that can be programmed to carry out a set of arithmetic or logical operations automatically. Since a sequence of operations can be readily changed, the computer can solve more than one kind of problem." And I have to say that the google definition is closer to my ideal! But...the "electronic" bit would exclude the Jacquard Loom - and also the Babbage Difference Engine. Removing that would remove Ada Lovelace from the role of "first programmer" and I'm pretty sure she deserves that title! So my feeling is that the Google definition (sans one word) fits a computer well - and also the loom. You have to remember that all out modern computers are based on devices which worked solely from punched cards - which started life as a data storage media, which were derived from the loom! :laugh: As usual, the "Search for Beginnings" is complicated...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
OriginalGriff wrote:
As usual, the "Search for Beginnings" is complicated...
What was first? The chicken or the egg? :laugh: :laugh:
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
-
OriginalGriff wrote:
As usual, the "Search for Beginnings" is complicated...
What was first? The chicken or the egg? :laugh: :laugh:
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
That one's easy: the egg. 1) Long, long before the first even vaguely recognisable chicken-like creature, dinosaurs were laying eggs (among a lot of other species over the years) 2) And then...[^]
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
-
Here we go:[](Americas First Computer)http://www.wired.com/2014/11/eniac-unearthed While we think 'the world' of Americans, they really must resist being so inbred; the World's First Computer was Collossus at Bletchley Park, or even Charles Babbage's 'Difference Engine'. There there. Eniac was America's First Computer. :laugh:
Walter Isaacson's "The Innovators" contains an excellent history of early computing and the individuals involved.
