Pioneers of computing

[Brent Hilpert]

On 2019-Mar-10, at 5:16 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
> On 3/10/19 2:18 PM, Murray McCullough via cctalk wrote:
>> Historians, though not all, credit this development as the
>> beginning of the electronic-computing revolution that was truly underway by
>> the mid-70s.
> 
> Scotty, more power to the Reality Distortion Field!


It's not an out-to-lunch suggestion.

The digital pocket calculator was the first mass-market digital electronic device to be put in the hands of the consumer.

Yes, all of us here know there were digital computers and other digital electronic devices around many years before, 
but the digital pocket calculator has a significant place at the beginnings of the transition to the ubiquity of such technology in everyday life,
as opposed to being behind-the-scenes in business, labs, and industry.

One can argue the transition would have happened without the pocket-calculator market -
just how influential it was in driving the innovation can be debated - but the historical fact is it was there,
and a large market in the context.