On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 10:30 PM, Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: [snip]
Research papers and university theses from that era and older, are more available on the Web today than ever. University and govt. libraries have digitized their holdings and cataloged them. So a Web search will find them - whereas, years and decades ago, this was exceptional. So the content of such work, sometimes including coding, is available online.
But numeric code doesn't exhibit well. Lots of these programs were essentially mathematical in nature. Numbers in, numbers out. Interpreting them was done by humans; there wasn't enough CPU power to waste with graphs and charts, that came later. So did graphic displays, for the most part. This stuff in the original, will be hard to exhibit. Also: the science content will be hard to represent, to most people including the younger crowd (under 30) and to the non-science non-math crowd.
But I would not mind seeing, some hard-science stuff at VCF-East. And I think there's an audience for it, to warrant an exhibit or two. And consider this - demonstrating an ANALOG computer is an exercise in pure math, differential equations to be exact. VCF Inc. intends to restore such computers in the near future. So this is "in the cards".
But, while it's good to say "here's some atomic reaction codes", explaining the physics or math would be very challenging and take up the viewer's time. That suggests to me the use of a Web page, not an exhibit. And so the practical question becomes this:
What do you do with a physical exhibit of period hardware about period users, but on display in the 21st century to people who can't interpret that use, much less the time available to them?
One possible answer might be - thinking out loud - is that you use modern computing (or faster vintage computers) to show some of the results. You could do worse than use simple video display hardware, to represent your results, produce some graphics. Or audio output, that's a useful mode of presentation. This will call for some thinking and imagination, and planning. Now, later vintage computing - HP desktop computers and calculators - WERE able to produce graphical results. But are they pretty pictures - which I can make with an oscilloscope and some simple circuits - or are they pictures that have some meaning?
Just wanted to expand on your comments, About somethings I would try to consider for an exhibit There's still the old-school method of providing a visual interactive exhibit. Something that demonstrates the operation using simple display with a diagram outlined with lights, switches, etc,etc. And interfaced to a micro to make it interactive which the visitor can operate I worked on some training material back then when we had the first appliance micros, And the instructors wanted something to demonstrate the operation of a CPU So I made a display which sat on the desk using a diagram of a CPU with Registers, ALU, Program Counter, Stack Pointer, etc, etc Using LEDs to show the contents of those areas, and even more LEDs to show the path they take for the instructions and data and how they moved inside the CPU. And all of this was interfaced and programmed via the micro [TRS80 Model I] Then the student would write a program on the micro and watch it operate on the display. Then there are some existing modern "tools" which can enhance your exhibit to help convey your subject on any science related exhibit. So maybe together with some original code running your computer exhibit which might only produce results in text, or some original electronic demonstration which might produce only numeric results, This tool can provide the visual component to illustrate what happens. I think having any form of interactive exhibit is worthwhile This tool is a very impressive high school level interactive physics simulator on all materials [ie:graphics] Even model the thermal energy in tandem during the simulation And this lets you merge electronics for control applications into the simulation Mind you this is a 21st century high school level, while it may not be considered college grade material, The simulator is still comparable to the physics used in many high end gaming platforms, Plus more since it's interactive -- but then only in 2D So while these days of marketing hype about the many possible simulations that can be done with Minecraft, there is actually something more extraordinary available. It's been around for about a decade, and it's ported for the top 3 desktop platforms Its called Powder Toy, http://powdertoy.co.uk/ Tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKfwYOg1yog Operate a Nuclear Power Plant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytRfY8jY_VA Electronics - Build a Microcomputer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4eHgnLFk9k Build an Atomic bomb https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxoLfeZcKxw Dan