Jecel,
Perhaps what made it more difficult is that Mr. Babbage appears to have had no close partners in his work? For example, could we say something of value about Leibniz and his automaton, had we casually met him in the 1600s?
Andres.
Jecel Assumpcao Jr wrote:
Mr Babbage's personality, though the cause of the problem that left Lord Moulton so sad, was also the very thing that allowed such fantastic projects to be attempted at all. I see such "defects" in myself and personally know a couple more people like that. I also know a few more who see themselves as misunderstood geniuses but who are really plain crazy. Hardly anybody seems to be able to tell them apart.
-- Jecel
Andres,
Perhaps what made it more difficult is that Mr. Babbage appears to have had no close partners in his work? For example, could we say something of value about Leibniz and his automaton, had we casually met him in the 1600s?
Indeed, I had actually written something about that but then erased it to keep my reply more focused. His most famous partner, Ada, was sufficiently like him that it didn't help things very much. You need a very different kind of personality to get results. That is why successful one person startups are so rare.
Another issue that leads to projects like this is intermittent funding. Sometimes there is a enough for progress, sometimes all work stops and you can only talk/write about it. See Ted Nelson's Xanadu for another example.
-- Jecel
squeak-dev@lists.squeakfoundation.org
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Andres Valloud -
Jecel Assumpcao Jr