🚀 go-pugleaf

dana@rucs.faculty.cs.runet.edu (Dana Eckart) writes:

>Surely von Neumann made "lasting contributions"?!?

That's been a subject of historical debate, too. His two classic
papers about computer architecture, the "First Draft Report" and
"Preliminary Considerations" were both written while he was hanging
around Moore School participating in the ongoing conversations about
doing better than ENIAC. Sorry I can't cite a source offhand, but I
remember reading comments by some of those participants alleging that
von Neumann got his key ideas from the Moore School group rather than
vice versa. The Moore School group was constrained from publishing by
military security constraints that von Neumann found a way around.

Anyway, that's one interpretation. In any case, he wrote it up so
his name got stuck on it. Nobody disputes that he was brilliant,
regardless of which ideas were specifically his.

Some who are familiar with the Atanasoff story might take this as
poetic justice acting against Mauchly.

Rick.
smith@sctc.com         arden hills, minnesota