🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <11397@ksr.com>, jfw@ksr.com (John F. Woods) writes:
> erspert@athena.mit.edu (Ellen R. Spertus) writes:
> >In article <1992Apr10.183002.5425@sctc.com> smith@sctc.com (Rick
Smith) writes:
> >>dab@moxie.moxie.oswego.edu (David Alan Bozak) writes:
> >>>I was appalled that there was NO mention of Atanasoff.  
> >>The show is titled "The Machine that Changed the World." ENIAC
> >>and its progeny changed the world. Atanasoff's machine didn't.
> >I don't agree with this objection.  Konrad Zuse's machine didn't
> >change the world, but he was featured.
> 
> In another newsgroup (comp.arch?  sci.electronics?  I don't remember
offhand),
> someone posted a message from the producer of the show on why they left
> Atanasoff out.  Basically, it's because his machine went nowhere, and to
> give enough background to include his contribution in context would have
> taken too much time.  The producer pointed out that they were careful to
> refer to ENIAC as the "first programmable electronic computer", though
> without the context of Atanasoff's nonprogrammable machine, the distinction
> does become lost.

In the BBC version (called "The Dream Machine") I thought the
title of "first working programmable electronic computer" was
applied to the Manchester University machine, how different was
"The Machine that Changed the World" from "The Dream Machine". 
I must say I thought the running order of the BBC series was a
touch odd it did tend to spend a long time talking about
developments in the US, then go on to discuss earlier
devlopments in the UK in a "separate" section.  Has all the
stuff about Alan Turing's vital contribution via Bletchley Park
and his visit to the US in 1941 (?) been removed?

> As to why Zuse's machine was featured (despite going nowhere) and Atanasoff's
> wasn't, I would guess it was because Zuse's machine was a more interesting
> failure; it provided the bridge between Babbage's "Steam Age" machine (:-) 
> and Mauchly&Eckert's "Electronic Age" machine (being an "Electric Age"
> machine).  Atanasoff's computer was an Electronic Age attempt that went
> nowhere, and would have broken the flow of the presentation.


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