Of course. You
need to define 'personal' and 'computer'.
Two terms that are easy to define to 80% accuracy, but very difficult
when used to split hairs of the type "machine X is/is not a personal
computer".
Precisely. It's often poitless to do so as well. I think most people
would agree that soemthing like, say, a BBC micro is a 'personal
computer' (although not the first) and a Cray is not. But there are
always borderline cases.
Do programmable
calcualtors cunnt [1] for example?
[1] No, not i nthe sense of incrementing a regiser :-)
I would say that if a particular device is considered to be a
calculator, programmable or not, it's not eligible for moniker
"personal computer". A computer that can't calculate isn't much of a
In which case, the HP9830 doens;'t qualify. It's called a 'Model 30
Calcualtor' in some literature.
Point is, at the time it was called a 'calculator' for marketing reasons.
It wasn't like a 'computer', it didn't need an air-conditioned room,
raised flooring, a maintenance contract, an operating staff, etc. It was
just soemthing you put on a desk or bench and started to use. Like a
calcualtor.
The fact that it has a QWERTY keyborad, an alphanumeric display and
programs in BASIC would seem to make it a computer, though, by modern
definitions.
computer, and likewise a calculator that can't
"compute" is just a
calculator. IMO, the difference is intended use and especially the
UI. Calculators have numeric keypads and mathematical function keys,
and if they have alpha keys, those are often a secondary feature.
Computers tend towards toggle switches, simple keypads (0-F plus load,
run, etc), or full typewriter-style alphanumeric keyboards with
symbols commonly used when writing human languages, not just
mathematical expressions.
Agian there are plenty of borderlien cases IMHO>
Right. Just because a different machine requires
multiple cabinets or
load media, or only interfaces to the user via lights and switches
doesn't make it less of a computer, just different, and probably for a
different type of user/customer.
Sure. There are amny machiens which can reasonably be claimed ot be part
of the evolution leading up to the sort of machine that most people use
today, and each is a valid machien to resotre, document, etc. It's
pointless to argue as to which is the 'first personal computer'.
It's much easier to define 10 characteristics of "personal computing"
and give examples of what may be the first appearance of said
characteristic than to nominate "a" specific "first persona
compute".
I remember there was even an argument that the IBM 5150 was the first
personal computer specifically because it was call the the "IBM
Personal Computer" and was the first to use the term. That's clearly
easy to disprove (Apple wasn't even the first, but they use "personal
computer" or "personal computing" in their 1977 ads for the Apple II).
I have an ideas that there was an advertising flyer for the HP65 (a
machine which has a justifyable claim to the title of 'first handheld
programmable calculator, althohgh the (much inferior) Sumlock Compucorp
322 predated it by a couple of weeks) which called it 'Your personal
computing system' or something like that. it's certainly a calculator
(key per function, no alpha at all), but on the other hand it is
user-prgoramamble, it is 'personal' (it goes in your pocket) and it does
do computations.
-tony