Submitted by Doron Swade to the Computer Conservation Society.
Winding back to last Spring, with the survey of the Babbage manuscript archive complete, we were faced with the choice of pressing on to define what might be built using our current knowledge, or stepping back to evaluate and analyse what was captured in the review of the archive. We decided to step back and Tim Robinson has made substantial progress extending and integrating our understanding of the AE design and its trajectory from 1834 till Babbage’s death in 1871. Tim has identified and describes six phases in the evolution of the AE designs.
These are framed in an overview of the developmental timeline of the whole AE enterprise. There are also focussed pieces on central topics including the use of punched cards, the user view, methods of carriage of tens, and arithmetical process. This work represents the first comparative overview of each of the major designs ('Plans') and provides a new depth of understanding of the overall AE designs and of the developmental arc. The new findings vindicate the decision to take time out to process the material from the archive survey: the work will inform what can meaningful be built given that none of Babbage’s original designs describe a complete engine; secondly, the scholarly value of capturing and documenting a major advance in understanding since Bruce Collier’s work in the 1960s and Allan Bromley’s work in the 1970s and 80s. The immediate next step is to complete this analysis. The project will then move on to defining what version of the AE should be built.
Doron Swade
But rushing might cause us to miss the deepest insights. We are only trying to more thoroughly explore the thought process that lead to the computer, or more appropriately, the analyzer.
ReplyDeleteThank you for what you are doing.
MA
But rushing might cause us to miss the deepest insights. We are only trying to more thoroughly explore the thought process that lead to the computer, or more appropriately, the analyzer.
ReplyDeleteThank you for what you are doing.
MA
But rushing might cause us to miss the deepest insights. We are only trying to more thoroughly explore the thought process that lead to the computer, or more appropriately, the analyzer.
ReplyDeleteThank you for what you are doing.
MA
Rushing might cause us to miss the deepest insights. We are only trying to explore the thought process that lead to the computer, or as it was originally (and perhaps more accurately) termed - the analyzer.
ReplyDeleteThank you for what you are doing.
MA
Are any transcriptions of Babbage's notes/drawings, or these documents, or analyses available to the rest of us members/followers? That are high enough resolution to make out handwriting? The site I found before with scans were still of insufficient resolution to make out much of what the handwritten annotations said, though I tried with many hours of staring at different scales.
ReplyDeleteAfter what seems like 8 years of following this project, or closing in on a decade if one includes the few years prior to first hearing of it, I feel like the amount of work that's resulted from this, that has been published to the public, or at least made available to the rest of us members, is perpetually either private and privileged or "not ready" for the rest of us to look at. And this makes me feel like my participation is limited to mere passive moral support—which the project still absolutely has from me—instead of being able to both contribute and use it as a resource for building my own miniature Babbage-style mechanical computer, which I once dreamt of so many years ago. And much of what is publicly available (even at some difficulty in foraging), presents information from the perspective of and admirer but not an engineer, as your and Bromley's papers and works have done.
I also feel like the few other members I interacted with many years back have likewise possibly lost some or much of their enthusiasm, moved on to other pursuits, or possibly even passed on.
Thank you for the update. Please do you have an approximate projected schedule for this new phase of analysis?
ReplyDeleteWonderful news!
ReplyDeleteI think given the large number of variations in the various plans and none offering a complete design?
That a machine 'in the spirit' of his goal would be the most fitting - a working solution that uses as much of his designs as possible - but is capable of what he dreamed of.
Given the mammoth task? I would propose building small parts of the machine along with electro-mechanical interfaces that would allow the physical part to 'plug into' a simulation - using SRAM via such an interface would help setup test-cases easily and quickly.
https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co62844/punched-cards-for-analytical-engine
ReplyDeleteI was interested in these packs of punched cards for the Analytical Machine. Is it possible that I contain a "really first" "computer program"? Those cards are numbered, sorted and described.
Best Of Luck
ReplyDelete~Babbage
Is there some place where scans of his sketches/notes can be found online to read in one place? Not your work, but like the public domain stuff if it is, in fact, public domain by now. I just find it very interesting and would like to read more about it.
ReplyDelete