Info on things old wanted...

From: Lawrence Walker <lwalker_at_mail.interlog.com>
Date: Sat Oct 25 21:21:19 1997

> Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 09:23:46 -0400 (EDT)
> Reply-to: classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu
> From: William Donzelli <william_at_ans.net>
> To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
> Subject: Re: Info on things old wanted...
> X-To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>

> > > Does anyone have any information on these two things? My guess is that the
> > > IBM card machine may be
> > pre-computer (programmed by plugboards, etc.).
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> >
> > WHOAH here !! Just a minute !! Are you trying to say that anything
> > without a LSI chip or integrated circuit-board is a "pre-computer" ?
>
> This whole family of data processing machines is commonly called "unit
> record equipment". Yes, the stuff does process data just as a modern
> database can, but they are really not general purpose data crunchers like
> a "standard" computer.
>
> > This might be the beginning of an epistimological revision to rival
> > that of the term PC to mean a MSDOS machine or R&R meaning any
> > kind of new pop music.
>
> The lines of history are often very blurry. Rarely does anything get
> invented or changed in an instant of time. Data processing machines are no
> exception, but one does have to come up with some naming conventions, or
> use ones already in place. I was just using an existing one.
>
> And no, I never implied that computers started with LSI chips - as a few
> of you people know, I collect minis mostly, and two of my machines do not
> have integrated circuits at all. I still call them computers (OK, one is
> actually a calculator, but I am not going to open that can of worms).
>
 Maybe we're talking of different kinds of worms. : ^ ) but I've
always considered Babbidges machine the first computer.
 I've got an old Monroe mechanical calculator in my collection
that I don't call a computer tho it "crunches" numbers , but the
Enniac which was preprogrammed by plugboard IIRC ,is considered a
computer by any authority I've ever read . The 80 col "computer" card
would be a misnomer in that case. The sorters, collators, keypunch,
and compilers I worked on in the 50's tho obviously not computers
were I\O adjuncts just as keyboard, DDs and modems are now.
 Plugboards were handwired to delineate paths for info just as
present-day programs do.
 Am I missing something from your original post ? Did you mean
pre-processing rather than before the computer era ?

ciao larry
lwalkerN0spaM_at_interlog.com
Received on Sat Oct 25 1997 - 21:21:19 BST