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NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2025 03:20:18 +0000
Subject: Re: VMS
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc
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From: c186282 <c186282@nnada.net>
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2025 23:20:24 -0400
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On 6/16/25 2:15 PM, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
> On 2025-06-16, c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:
> 
>>     Babbage was making his computers using BRASS gears
>>     and cogs - not bronze or steel. Lovelace didn't
>>     live long enough to invent VMS alas.
>>
>>     Hmm, how WOULD you network Babbage AEs using the
>>     tech of the time ? The telegraph was demonstrated
>>     just a few years after he proposed the AE ... maybe
>>     a two baud connection ?  :-)
> 
> Well, Teletypes managed 110 baud (even 150 on the model 37
> but that was pushing it).  I have a 35RO on which I did a
> complete adjustment and lubrication schedule according to
> the manual.  In the process I got a good look at how it
> decoded incoming data with nothing more than a honking big
> solenoid and a bunch of very clever little cams and pawls.
> Pretty awesome, actually.

   Old telegraphs were interesting - because the data
   was essentially 'binary' - ones and zeros, contact
   or not. This made it possible to use simple relays
   as repeater/amplifiers. Easy 1800s tech.

   So, in theory, they COULD have networked Babbage
   Analytical Engines. Very low speed, but it really
   would have worked.

   I wonder what protocol Ada would have envisioned ?
   Babbage was the hardware guy, but Lovelace understood
   the Full Potential a LOT better.