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by warfangle 4792 days ago
Just because the computer in my microwave doesn't have a GUI or a CLI doesn't mean it isn't a computer.

The first computers dealt with input via switches and levers. I don't think anyone would call the Colossus[0] a toy, and it had nothing resembling the command prompt that we know today.

0. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer
1 comments
guard-of-terra 4792 days ago
Your computer in microwave is not a computer. You can't run custom programs on it, it's not turing complete for you in this sense.

To run custom programs on it, you'll need to add a terminal to it or succumb to the sin of batch processing.

Colossus wasn't actually turing complete. It wasn't a computer except in historic sense.

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to3m 4792 days ago
You can use a GUI-based programming system. An example might be Devpac (68000 assembly language editor/assembler/debugger) on the Atari ST.

(You could get command shells for the ST, because it was a programmable computer, so of course you could make it do pretty much whatever you wanted if you were willing to put the effort in. But the system didn't ship with a command line interface and (as I recall...) most of the programming environments - at least the ones popular in Europe - didn't include one either.)

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guard-of-terra 4792 days ago
GUI-based system still needs command shell or it will lose a lot of flexibility arising from being able to evaluate small bits of code and therefore code incrementally.

"Immediate mode" counts.

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warfangle 4792 days ago
Command shell, GUI, it's all software. If you have an x86 machine without an operating system on it, is it a computer?

Is an iOS device not a computer because it doesn't have a CLI?

What about a hypothetical computer that uses your brain as input - would that have a CLI? CLI/GUI/etc is irrelevant to the definition of computer.

Unless you're just being a pedantic troll, in which case kudos :)

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guard-of-terra 4792 days ago
"If you have an x86 machine without an operating system on it, is it a computer" No, it's a pile of iron and silicon.

"Is an iOS device not a computer because it doesn't have a CLI?" Not after you buy it, you have to turn it into a computer.

"What about a hypothetical computer that uses your brain as input - would that have a CLI?" It sure will, how else will you use it?

It's not pedantism. Pedantism is about meaning of words. My rant is about meaning of concepts. If you hit nails with your microscope, it's not a microscope for you but rather a lame hammer.

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pasquinelli 4792 days ago
Your computer in microwave is not a computer.
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