Existence Precedes Essence - Meaning of the Stored-Program Concept - History of Computing: Learning from the Past - page 177

5 Conclusion

I have defined the modern “stored-program” computer as a machine that not only
possess the hardware characteristics suggested by the “Draft Report on the EDVAC,”
but also was used in a certain way. Specifically the philosophy of use must take full
advantage of the ability of the machine to generate its own instructions and strive for
maximum generality. Finally the machine must also practically achieve significant
generality. Ultimately my definition of the modern computer is qualitative rather than
a strict demarcation. Therefore any claim to which machine is the first on this basis is
problematic. Still, using it I have attempted to justify the common distinction made in
the history of computing literature between the modern computer and their various
precursors. The justification is that this definition better reflects the trends in the his-
tory of computing. In principle it might make no difference how we define things, but
in practice our definitions help determine how we summarize and organize history.

Acknowledgments. Thank you to my mother and my colleague Isaac Record for
proof reading versions of this paper. I also wish to thank the Special Collections of
the library of the University of North Carolina at Raleigh, where I carried out research
that has been integral to this paper. Finally I must thank my anonymous reviewers for
their comments and corrections.

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