On 12/22/2018 1:00 AM, Philip Thrift wrote:
On Saturday, December 22, 2018 at 2:35:27 AM UTC-6, Philip Thrift wrote:
On Saturday, December 22, 2018 at 1:13:48 AM UTC-6,
[email protected] wrote:
What are the key differences between their contributions to
computer science? TIA, AG
A century apart:
1837 - Analytical Engine
1936 - Turing Machine
"[Charles Babbage's] Analytical Engine incorporated an arithmetic
logic unit, control flow in the form of conditional branching and
loops, and integrated memory, making it the first design for a
general-purpose computer that could be described in modern terms
as *Turing-complete.* In other words, the logical structure of the
Analytical Engine was essentially the same as that which has
dominated computer design in the electronic era."
[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytical_Engine
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytical_Engine> ]
Turing sort of picked up where Babbage left off 100 years before.
In retrospect, it is surprising that programming languages (which
also logicians seemed oblivious to as well as mathematicians) took
so long to originate.
- pt
Regarding programming, one shouldn't forget who was to be the "first
programmer" for Babbage's AE.
*Ada Augusta, Countess of Lovelace
*
http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/sketch.html
- pt
Babbage never completed any of his engines, but
https://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/modernsequel/ . I wonder if
anyone will ever undertake to build his Analytical Engine?
Brent
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