David Cantrell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Tue, Jan 21, 2003 at 03:35:06PM +0000, Alex McLintock wrote: >> Just had a friendly argument with a hitchhikers fan as to whether or not an >> abacus was >> a digital or analogue computer. > > Digital, clearly, as it can not represent values over a continuous > range, only discrete values across that range. It just doesn't use > base two.
Digital in the sense that the user's fingers form a vital part of the machinery. But (donning the pedantry trousers) it's not really a computer at all. -- Piers
