> On Jan 31, 2024, at 1:39 PM, Wouter de Waal via cctalk
> <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
>
>> I have found that computers are much like motorcycles: many of the most
>> interesting were never available in the US.
>
> Computers are much like motorcycles: many of the most interesting ones were
> TERRIBLE!
I wonder what fraction of early (before, say, 1955) computer work was done in
the USA. A substantial fraction no doubt, but perhaps not as large as one
might guess. A related question would be how much work was done outside the
USA and UK.
For that matter, similar questions could be asked about the amount of
documentation preserved from various countries. One difficulty, I think, is
that resources like bitsavers have a large proportion of US material. Maybe
because of the predominance of the work, maybe in part because of the
distribution of collectors. To pick one example, material -- even just a
passing reference -- about the Philips PR8000 is very nearly nonexistent. And
I see no trace of any other Dutch computer at all on Bitsavers. True, some
stuff can be found in places like the CWI archive, though searching that can be
rather painful.
paul
