9 Mar
2023
9 Mar
'23
7:17 p.m.
On Thu, 9 Mar 2023, Sellam Abraham via cctalk wrote:
It seems to come down to agreement (or lack thereof)
on the definition of
"personal computer".
Somehow I feel like this debate has been had before. Probably here.
Probably several times.
Sellam
It is a permanent topic.
Along with "First".
("proposed"/"designed"/"prototyped"/"announced"/"demonstrated"/"offered
for sale"/"sold"/"delivered"/"retail availability without
pre-order/waitlist")
IBM PC/5150 was announced/released August 11, 1981. But, it was many
months before I could take one home.
I was able to take home a TRS80 first, but some other people were able to
take home Apple first. (I insist that TRS80/PET/Apple2 was a TIE)
It would help to clarify a bit of basic elements.
ANY computer can be considered to be a personal computer. A pile of stones
to use as an abacus is a personal computer. Marked sticks to use as a
slide rule are a personal computer. When I first took the SATs, we were
told "NO sliderules", but to bring our own scratch paper, including graph
paper! What do you get when you slide two pieces of log graph paper past
each other? The next time, they changed the rules, and they supplied the
scratch paper, but still required the test takers to bring multiple #2
pencils, and didn't rule out pencils with a log scale down the side.
Operated by single person is kinda arbitrary. Lots of people have "Geek
Squad" set up their "personal computer", or have company IT people
maintain it, and untangle user induced problems.
I had a blind student, who sometimes got other people to help read the
portions of the screen that the Votrax choked on.
Some personal computers have more than one screen (great for
progtramming).
I've seen some with more than one keyboard. If two, or more people play a
game on one, does that make it no longer a "personal" computer?
In Fabrice Florin's Nova documentary, "Hackers : Wizards Of The Electronic
Age", there is a scene of consensus joysticks.
Size? Price? Weight? arbitrary.
A Cray is a personal computer.
If you were a billionaire, might you have one as a personal computer?
The probability of my having serious money has kept me from fantasizing
what I would have.
Some people try to insert the word "reasonable".
"The reasonable man adapts to the world; the unreasonable man tries to
adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the
unreasonable man." - George Bernard Shaw
Would it work to limit it to machines that were designed, manufactured,
and marketed for the purpose of being one?
That invokes "intent".
Therefore, ALL computers are personal computers.
Whether a computer is a "HOME computer" involves where and how would you
want to live? Do we count the one that the Vogons destroyed, that the
mice had commissioned Magrathea to build?
We did eventually come up with definitions of
microcomputer/minicomputer/mainframe.
"Can you pick it up"/"handtruck"/"union moving crew"
"lose a screw in it"/"lose a screwdriver in it"/"lose a scope or
a
technician"
(size/price/weight/architecture all have exceptions)
So, maybe there is still hope for a definition.
"Would you refuse others access to it?"/"only those you want to
impress"/"Only family members"/"Only close friends, or those you want
to
have sex with"
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com