On Fri, Jan 12, 2024 at 1:47 PM Jeffrey Jonas:
Herb touches upon how our expectations of "computers" have evolved. To folks outside the engineering profession, "embedded processors", "industrial controllers" and other special- purpose machines don't look-and-feel like that's now accepted as a "computer". Yet the Arduino has made such embedded processing more accessible than ever to the hobbyist, experimenter, artist, etc.
Perhaps that applies here: what were once called "computers" are now considered embedded processors, IoT (Internet of Things) or Internet appliances.
I was about to say how cellphones [or desktop computers] are more of an appliance than a computer by the way most folks just download apps.
[list of late 1970's microprocessors used for embedded controllers].
I'm not entirely happy that a thread that has drifted to Asimov's Laws of Robotics, has my name in it. I'll respond to the original points, on the original subject line. Those people interested in robotics, maybe can start a new thread subject? Those interested in Christian's Comstar might reply to his thread. I did not mean to hijack Christian's thread, just to embellish it, underscore his challenges in finding information and referencing the Compstar as various kinds of computer. Jeff acknowledges my point and adds modern context, other devices. Yeah, there's a long history about logical mechanisms as some kind of computing or analytical thing or even a kind-of person. If I'm not mistaken, Christian has/had in hand physically, at least the "compiler" Comstar product, maybe also the "controller" product? Not quite clear what he owns. I hope he puts it up on some kind of Web page or other editable Web-accessable thingy, that has stability and can be edited and refined. Too hard to do that in threaded discussions (this a case in point). It's not all nuts and bolts, the chips and a few words don't define the objects. I find this research, or curation, as much fun as restoration and repair. For those who have lost interest in those considerations and simply think "it's a computer, move on!"? Well, these things matter to some of us (oldies) who have seen a lot of change in the computing we have experienced. Those who look back decades and before their time, might get a richer experience by becoming aware of the expectations then, versus expectations at other times. As Christian describes, there's still discoveries to be made in vintage computing. Regards Herb Johnson Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA https://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT comcast DOT net