PDP is not a computer (was ENIAC)

Actually, I think this is the very heart of the matter... Abraham lincoln (I think) said (when arguing about a rather more serious matter) that 'calling a tail a leg does not make it one'. I would add that also calling a tail something else does not stop it from being a tail. In this case, calling something a 'computer' does not necessarily make it a computer by all definitions. It may be a computer by some definitions and not others. It may not be a computer by any sensible defition Similarly, the fact that the PDP8 was called a 'Programemd Data Processor' and that the HP9830 [1] was called a 'Model 30 Calculator' by HP, both for perfectly good marketing reasons, does not stop either of them being classed as computers by a reasonable definition of the word. [1] A desktoip machine with an alphanumeric display and BASIC in ROM. It's hard to make a sensible definition of 'computer' that excludes it. So, yes, you can, very reasoanbly, call ENIAC, Colossus, the ABC, etc, 'computers'. Equally, yuo may have a definition, such as requiring a stored program, that excludes them. Neither is 'right' or 'wrong'. -tony