yep, that’s why it was until fairly recently that descriptions of (hardware) computers were always prefaced with ‘electronic’ or ‘digital’.
The movie Hidden Figures covers the NASA use of the walking talking variety in the space programme.
1 Like
Profile pic checks out 
2 Likes
SO the question for the Rack forum is: By turning imaginary knobs and connecting imaginary cables in Rack, am I programming a computer
maybe this could give a bit of an answer:
or a more VCV centric example:
this patch:
was my prototype for this module:
I think the programming side of VCV is yet to be explored. And that is fun! If you treat modules like a computer or just electronic parts, you would probably create something really interesting. I’ve tried to explore it, but i am not this smart sadly. So my experiments were a bit of a failure. Like this thing:
In my opinion, without a doubt. You are programming a system, which is like a very high level language that ultimately programs the computer. Some of the first digital computers had to be programmed via patch cords.
1 Like
Here’s another example:
5 Likes
That’s really cool!
1 Like
Given that all the first programmers did was set bits in memory and then sit back and let a program run I think you could argue that any interaction that you have with a computer program while it’s running is programming it.
and ‘debugging’ was sweeping the circuits for critters. At least that’s the myth, even I’m not old enough to have worked with non-IC based computer kit.
I did help write a ‘think of a number’ program for a school’s ancient mini computer on punched cards in the seventies, that’s as far back as I go.
my college had the last mainframe made before integrated circuits. They made us use every possible obsolete method of entering programs: teletype, toggle switches, paper tape. When the finally let us use the PDP 11-70 with terminals it was quite an improvement.
1 Like
Before I was a “computer”, I was a “calculator” or a “calculator programmer” via my slide-rule. Quite a while later I became a “computer” and then a “computer programmer”.
The mythic first bug was attributed to Grace Murray Hopper:
Among the team who found the first-reported computer bug was computer-language pioneer Dr. Grace Hopper. She is often given credit for reporting the bug, but that is not true. She was, however, the person who likely made the incident famous.
2 Likes