Re: [OT] It all began with them... Message #3 Posted by Howard Owen on 23 July 2007, 2:06 a.m., in response to message #2 by Namir
Quote:
I feel slide rules and calculators are as different as water and oil.
You make a good case for the difference between slide rules and calculators, Namir, but there is one similarity you may have missed. Both tools were used for the same purposes. The HP-35 made the slide rule obsolete. It was a better tool, but that just underlines the similarity. The HP-35 was specifically designed to do the same jobs a slide rule did. The fact that it did so faster, with better accuracy and precision, and was easier to boot, are all differences in quality, not in kind. Later, when the programmable hand held calculator came along, you started into territory no slide rule could go. At that point, the distinction becomes clearer, in my mind.
Regards, Howard
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