re: #263 MandyManners

I’m not talking about writing code. I’m talking about using a computer, knowing what it can do and how it can do it.

You remind me of my older sister, Mandy.
Thirsty and excited about computers - she would drive me nuts with her questions. (I was trained by IBM).

When I would go on sports car rallies back in the 50s we would use Curta Calculators.
vcalc.net
Now some took them apart to find out how they did what they did. Not a wise move as they couldn’t be reassembled without factory jigs, etc.

The “how” was not the issue - that it gave us the time and distance calculations we needed to effectively compete was all I wanted.

A better question for you is what do you want to accomplish as an outcome with the computer.

A computer is limited only by the software that it runs. (I am discounting speed issues here). We put men on the moon with less computer power found in a hand held calculator nowadays. We can simulate an atomic detonation or draft an email message. Do you really want to know the how?

Better to pick a specific task you want to accomplish. Then the proven software that will achieve it. And finally the specific computer configuration that will run it.

Note that the actual hardware to run it on is the last choice. It might be a laptop or a mainframe depending on your desired outcome.

If you really want to know how computers do what they do start by learning how they count and the different counting systems they use. Binary, octal, hexadecimal, etc. Then get into boolean logic circuits, and, or, not, etc. … there is much more but I doubt you really want to go there.

BTW - I bought my sister an iBook and sent her to the Apple store to take their free classes on how to utilize the software packages. Not to learn about how computers work. ;-)