25 Jan
2011
25 Jan
'11
12:58 p.m.
For the sake
of discussion, here are some incremental definitions of
'computer' (not to say that these are the only possible definitions):
1 - something that performs a computation/calculation
2 - something that executes a program automatically (solves an
equation
where the equation is more than one simple arithmetic operation)
3 - something that is programmable (can solve a wide variety of
equations)
4 - a stored-program (/universal) machine
Waht do you call machins that
contain a stored program, even a use-alterable stored progrma with loops, conditionals and
subroutines (say) but which doesn't actually perform any numerical computations? I
have deisgned a few such things over there years -- special-purpose programamble control
systems that repond to inputs and generate outputs. Computers? Sequencers? Programamble
controllers? Whatever you call them they must be related to at least part of a
'computer'