Appendix . Computer Basics
What is a Computer? A simple question with no easy answer — a conventional engineering definition is that a computer is first and foremost a tool, not an object, i.e. a computer is defined not by what it is but rather by what it does. But let’s take a different course.
In the early days, computers were behemoth machines that carried out elaborate mathematical calculations. Programs were written to perform a desired calculation, submitted to the room-sized computer, and then you waited while the machine crunched your numbers and printed the results onto several reams of wide green-striped paper.
The next evolution raised the computer out of the big mainframe, batch-oriented, number-cruncher category into what were called ...
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