Hello SIGCIS members, You may remember some discussion on this list earlier this year following a previous press release from the National Museum of Computing calling EDSAC "the first practical general purpose computer." The museum's new press release, as linked to by Brian <http://www.tnmoc.org/news/news-releases/edsac-display-opens-and-commissioni ng-begins> , repeats that characterization, and goes one better: "It was the first practical general purpose computer and marked the beginning of computer programming as a distinct profession." The release also quotes Doron Swade as saying that "It could be said that EDSAC invented the user as a distinct class of practitioner." A little exaggeration is understandable at a gala celebration, but none of those claims for "firsts," "beginnings" and "invention" seem to me to hold up to historical scrutiny. EDSAC is traditionally viewed as the first "practical stored program computer" but was preceded as both "practical" and "general purpose" by digital computers such as ENIAC, SSEC, various Bell Labs and IBM relay calculators, the Harvard Mark 1, and several Zuse machines. In fact in response to the earlier discussion on this list TMOC removed the "first practical general purpose computer" claim. David Hartley from the EDSAC Replica Project contacted me to explain that the claim in no way represented the position of the museum, but was the mistake of an overenthusiastic PR person and had been corrected. So it's rather surprising to see the same phrase so prominently repeated in a new press release. (I'm pasting below my previous message on this topic). As we discussed during one of the SIGCIS sessions at SHOT, the term "general purpose," unlike "stored program," was actually used during the 1940s and featured prominently in the first wave of articles introducing ENIAC to the world. For example the abstract of a February 1948 Electrical Engineering paper by ENIAC team members Brainerd and Sharpless began "The ENIAC is the only electronic large-scale general-purpose digital computing device now in operation." As for the idea that EDSAC was the first computer to separate programing as a distinct role, both the Harvard Mark 1 and ENIAC provide well-documented counterexamples. Harvard separated operations and programming labor by about 1945, according to Beyer, Kurt W. Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009. ENIAC substantially combined the two roles in its original configuration, which is why the operators hired in mid-1945 are now remembered as pioneering programmers. However from about March 1947 one of those operators, Jean Bartik, headed a team of contract programmers based at the Moore School in Philadelphia after ENIAC and its operations team had left for Aberdeen, MD the previous year. This is very probably the first time a contract was given entirely for programming work and arguably marks beginning of programming work as a full-time occupation entirely distinct from building a computer, operating a computer, or overseeing its operation. Certainly it was an earlier and more complete separation of programming from other work than anything seen on EDSAC in 1949. Did EDSAC invent the user? In 1945-48, before EDSAC was completed, the Harvard Mark 1, IBM SSEC, and ENIAC all ran jobs for outside organizations and for users from Penn and the Ballistic Research Laboratory not affiliated with the ENIAC team. Los Alamos, for example, ran major jobs on all three machines and accounted for a significant fraction of all time consumed on ENIAC and SSEC during this period. ENIAC also ran jobs for Argonne, United Aircraft, and British mathematical physicist Douglas Hartree during the period. So it's not clear to me what EDSAC accomplished which was different from the relationship to ENIAC of an outside user organization with no programming staff or ENIAC operators, such as United Aircraft. Of course EDSAC played an important part in the development of programming and computer usage, but to me this offers another lesson in the danger of making claims to historical significance based on "firsts" or "inventions". Here is what I wrote previously, with reference to my ongoing work on this era with Mark Priestley and Crispin Rope (www.EniacInAction.com): Hmm, the discovery of those diagrams is good news for EDSAC rebuilders but I was surprised to see that the press release twice calls EDSAC "the first practical general purpose computer." One occurrence is in the boilerplate passage on EDSAC at the bottom of the release, which suggests that this is TNMOC's official position. That seems to violate the de facto truce concluded between early computer history enthusiasts in the early 1980s when they settled on the appropriate series of adjectives to go between "first" and "computer." As Mike Williams once wrote, "there is more than enough glory in the creation of the modern computer to satisfy all of the early pioneers, most of whom are no longer in a position to care anyway." (That's the introduction to the "The First Computers: History and Architecture" collection from 2000). ENIAC got the metaphorical trophy for "first general purpose electronic digital computer" in its original 1945 configuration whereas EDSAC went home with the award for "first practical stored program computer." .. Williams also noted that, "If you add enough adjectives to a description you can always claim your own favorite. For example ENIAC is often claimed to be the 'first electronic, general purpose, large scale, digital computer' and you certainly have to add all those adjectives before you have a correct statement." In our own work we argue that the history is somewhat more complicated than can be captured by those "first [adjective] [adjective] [adjective] computer" phrases, but that doesn't mean that "general purpose" and "stored program" can be conflated. People who care about "firsts" also need to take care with those adjectives. Best wishes, Tom -----Original Message----- From: members-bounces@sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Brian Randell Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2014 4:50 AM To: Sigcis Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] EDSAC display opens & commissioning begins Hi:
EDSAC display opens & commissioning begins
Entrepreneur Hermann Hauser has officially opened the EDSAC display at The National Museum of Computing and, as key parts of the reconstruction of one
the most influential computers ever built were commissioned, the sights, sounds, heat and sheer size of computing in the late 1940s were brought to life. Already the machine is proving to be a very popular exhibit and is a marvel and an inspiration to visiting educational groups.
EDSAC, the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator, was originally built in the University of Cambridge immediately after World War II by a team led by Sir Maurice Wilkes. It was the first practical general purpose computer and marked the beginning of computer programming as a distinct
profession. EDSAC was so successful that it was used in Nobel prize-winning scientific research and its design was later developed to create LEO, the world's first business computer.
After two years of research and re-engineering by a team of about 20 volunteers, the EDSAC reconstruction is now becoming a reality that is already fascinating visitors to the Museum.
At the official opening of the exhibit, several key elements of EDSAC were demonstrated. Bill Purvis showed how a program would be input before the advent of keyboards and how the result would be output before screens became commonplace. Peter Linnington revealed how, at the start of the computer age, delay lines were used as stores. As the climax, Chris Burton switched on the EDSAC clock, the beating heart of the machine.
The three-year project is on schedule for completion late next year and computer historian Martin Campbell-Kelly gave a preview of what is in store by outlining the importance of EDSAC in marking the beginnings of computer
programming. He revealed plans for young people to create and run their own programs on one of the world's most influential early computers. <snip> Full story at: <http://www.tnmoc.org/news/news-releases/edsac-display-opens-and-commissioni ng-begins> http://www.tnmoc.org/news/news-releases/edsac-display-opens-and-commissionin g-begins Cheers Brian Randell School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU EMAIL = <mailto:Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk> Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 208 7923 URL = <http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/staff/profile/brian.randell> http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/staff/profile/brian.randell _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from <mailto:members@sigcis.org> members@sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at <http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/> http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at <http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members> http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members