John Randall wrote: > … > Doron Swade, Charles Babbage and his Calculating Engines (1991)
Here are some excerpts from another book – The Difference Engine (2000) – of the same author. ‘In its variations and versatility, the system is thoroughly baroque.’ ‘He used it to optimise designs, minimise the number of parts, detect redundancy and manipulate long chains of events in an abstract shorthand all his own. He did not see its application confined to machinery, but viewed it as a universal abstract language of interaction applicable equally to the circulation of the blood, respiration in animals, the organisation of factories, and combat by sea or land.’ ‘In his seventies he [Babbage] wrote: “I look upon it [the Mechanical Notation] as one of the most important additions I have made to human knowledge. It has placed the construction of machinery in the rank of a demonstrative science. The day will arrive when no school of mechanical drawing will be thought complete without teaching it.”’ ‘To us the Mechanical Notation appears as an oddity of a formidably individual mind.’ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
