Le Jeu 21 jui 07 à 14:33:56 +0200, Oliver Fromme <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> écrivait :
> > I have a cousin who's taking up a programming course. He doesn't have > > background with programming nor an in depth understanding of how the > > computer works. I tried explaining him that it all started with > > abacus, and that people wanted to use something that could make their > > arithmetic life easier and that Charles Babbage tried automating this > > manual calculator with his steam engine or some sort... and that... > > Actually Charles Babbage designed a complex mechanical > computing machine (with lots of gearwheels etc.), but > it only ever existed on paper. Only small parts of it > have actually been built, but never the whole thing, > because it was too complex. It would work in theory, > though. :-) Pascal built such a machine: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_calculator>. -- Th. Thomas. _______________________________________________ freebsd-chat@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-chat To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
