The Man behind the Curtain
Unlike many words in the vocabulary of computing, virtual has more or less retained its standard English definition: "That is so in essence or effect, although not formally or actually; admitting of being called by the name so far as the effect or result is concerned."[9] In other words, a virtual computer would be something that acts just like a computer, but really isn't one. Who would want such a thing?
[9] Oxford English Dictionary, first current definition (4).
Apparently everyone, since virtual computer is just another name for what we have been calling software. This may seem a rash statement, but it really isn't. One of the most important mathematical discoveries (inventions?) of the twentieth century was Alan ...
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