[Coco] KIDS REACT TO OLD COMPUTERS

[Richard E Crislip]

On Fri, 30 May 2014 06:36:18 +1000
Nick Marentes <nickma2 at optusnet.com.au> wrote:

> Have computers really changed that much?
> 
> They still operate in much the same fundamental way as that Apple II 
> does. They have a CPU, RAM, video output, sound etc.
> 
> But they have become faster, bigger and lower cost... to be expected
> in the advancement of technology.
> 
> The UI... the face of it all... is what's been advanced so that to
> the average person it all looks so different and more understandable.
> 
> When we click on an icon, it still issues instructions to an
> operating system just in the way typing a verbal command at a command
> prompt. Just a different way of doing much the same thing.
> 
> (I am generalizing but you get my point)
> 
> Nick

My two cents, I am currently teaching an intro to computer science
class. As Nick is saying, most computers today are still using some
version of the Von Neumann algorithm. Even the ones with
multiprocessors. Love showing a text Ohio Edison gave me to learn when
I began working for them. It displayed the same "Storage, ALU,
Controller" diagram the text in use today uses. That old text book was
published by IBM in the late 60s. 8-)
>