23 Feb
2003
23 Feb
'03
5:12 a.m.
On Sat, 22 Feb 2003, Tony Duell wrote:
I certainly consider my TI-92+ a computer. I run unix on it.
Peace... Sridhar
If you
don't want to use mere programmability as the line between a
calculator and a computer, then
One 'working definition' that is commonly used for a (digital,
electronic) computer is that it is user-programmable. That is to say the
user can write a list of instructions that are then executed
automatically.
The calculators we're considering have this feature (the HP65, IIRC,
will remember 100 'program steps' (essentially functions from the
calculator keyboard) and will then execute them. There are unconditional
and conditional branches, which means you can have loops). There were
earlier non-programmable pocket calculators, but I don't class those as
computers (even though the HP35 had the same CPU architecture as the
HP65, and ran an intenral firmware program to make it act as a
calculator -- it wasn't hardwaired logic. But it wasn't _user_
programmable).