Originally posted by DeepThought
To qualify as a computer it has to be Turing complete, otherwise it's a calculator.
That's one definition. And according to that definition ENIAC was the first computer. It's all about definitions.
But the definition of a computer is only one definition. If we use another definition, then Babbage's difference engine is also a computer.
According to another definition of computer one computer was named Henrietta Swan Leavitt and worked for Hubble in his Observatory. She was however not a digital computer but nevertheless hired as a computer ant that was her title. See, everything is about the definition.
According to the article "The Controversy Behind the World's First
Digital Computer" show that the first computer was *not* ENIAC. And I say it all depends how you define a 'digital computer'. And that's the very controversy.
If you use a definition that makes ENIAC the first digital computer, then according to your definitions ENIAC in fact is the first computer. I myself have a broader view. You say yourself that even Babbage's difference engine can be considered to be a digital computer, I don't argue about that, but that is not the point of this thread. The only thing this thread is about is the article's assumption that ENIAC is not the first digital computer, nothing more.
It's all a matter of definitions. And there are more than one.