Joey K Tuttle wrote: you > should make it a priority to see Difference Engine No. 2 in its full > glory. It is truly an amazing piece of machinery. The video about it > is informative, but like standing in front of a redwood tree, or on > the rim of the grand canyon, the real experience is somthing that you > can't get from words and pictures... Even so, the video is worth > watching - > > http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/
I completely agree. I have not seen the one in California, but I have seen the one in London. As the first automatic calculator, the Difference Engine was a major milestone. The Analytical Engine is even more amazing: it had a separate CPU and memory (the Mill and the Store), microprogramming (though rods in drums), punched cards for auxiliary storage and offline printing, subroutines (the Combination cards)... About the only thing it did not have was a stored program. Regrettably, I doubt it will ever be built. Best wishes, John ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
