🚀 go-pugleaf

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.

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.