Updating the Computer, Circa 1969

Coudal points out a "Swell article from UK Magazine 'Design' from 1969," excerpting "Designing a computer is a continuous process in which technological breakthroughs must be matched by new hardware, and new hardware by new software, without invalidating the systems already in use."

Comments

Re:Conversational Computing

[CRCulver]

My theory is that computing and humanity interrelate: in an environment where Latin is taught alongside math, your users and developers are sharper and more humane.

Why Latin? It's really no different than any other language, it doesn't make you more intelligent or allow you to express concepts any other language can't. All human languages are functionally equal, and while some might have ideas encoded in single lexical units (although please don't believe that myth about Eskimos and snow), all languages can express all concepts through circumlocutions. And if you want to say that Latin is teaches the learner something special about structure due to its synthetic nature, Russian or any other Slavonic language (or half of the languages worldwide) would do just the same.

Latin is vital for two things, one being able to read Roman literature or works in fields influenced by Latin-speaking culture such as law, or in understanding the genetic affiliation of languages in the Indo-European language family. Otherwise, it's nothing special and shouldn't be taught to anyone as just a matter of course.

You'd think...

[owlnation]

that a page about a design magazine might just, maybe, break up that wall of text into something designed to be easier to read.

Re:Conversational Computing

[Arker]

No, of course the language per se is not particularly special, at least not in ways that are unique to it in broad outlines. The point however is what that language connects you with. The literature, a HUGE chunk of the literature of western civilisation. The classic and medieval european literature is overwhelmingly in Latin, because that was quite simply the language literate people all over western europe wrote in. And, of course, it also helps to understand the underpinnings of ALL the Romance languages. On top of that, it's crucial to understanding much of the more formal parts of the English language, even though English is not, actually, a Romance language, because so much of our terminology, in science, in law, and so forth, comes from Latin.

Re:nothing to see here...

[19thNervousBreakdown]

You know how people watch old movies, learn history, carry on traditions, things like that? It's called culture. Now I don't know if you're a professional, or even just a dedicated hobbyist, but if either is true then this is your culture. Knowing who Atanasoff and Barry are, or what ENIAC stands for and what it was used for, or what a Hollerith Card is, or who Charles Babbage and Lady Lovelace (Ada Byron) are and what they did is maybe not a necessity, but I personally don't see how you can take real pride in your craft/trade/science/art if its history is completely meaningless to you.