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Monroe Epic
The Monroe EPIC was a programmable calculator that came on the market in the 1964. It consisted of a large desktop unit which attached to a floor-standing logic tower and was capable of being programmed to perform many computer-like functions. However, the only form of a branching instruction available was a hard-coded unconditional branch (GOTO) that always executed at program completion (the end of the operation stack Stack may refer to: Places * Stack Island, an island game reserve in Bass Strait, south-eastern Australia, in Tasmania’s Hunter Island Group * Blue Stack Mountains, in Co. Donegal, Ireland People * Stack (surname) (including a list of people ...) to return to the starting instruction of the program (looped back to the beginning of operation stack). This made the creation of conditional branching logic, such as IF-THEN-ELSE, impossible. References External linksOld Calculators Museum Images of the Monroe Epic [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Programmable Calculator
Programmable calculators are calculators that can automatically carry out a sequence of operations under the control of a stored computer programming, program. Most are Turing complete, and, as such, are theoretically general-purpose computers. However, their user interfaces and programming environments are specifically tailored to make performing small-scale numerical computations convenient, rather than for general-purpose use. The first programmable calculators such as the IBM CPC used punched cards or other media for program storage. Hand-held electronic calculators store programs on magnetic strips, removable read-only memory cartridges, flash memory, or in battery-backed read/write memory. Since the early 1990s, most of these flexible handheld units belong to the class of graphing calculators. Before the mass-manufacture of inexpensive dot-matrix LCDs, however, programmable calculators usually featured a one-line numeric or alphanumeric display. The Big Four manufacturer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desktop Computer
A desktop computer, often abbreviated as desktop, is a personal computer designed for regular use at a stationary location on or near a desk (as opposed to a portable computer) due to its size and power requirements. The most common configuration has a computer case, case that houses the power supply unit (computer), power supply, motherboard (a printed circuit board with a microprocessor as the central processing unit, computer memory, memory, bus (computing), bus, certain peripherals and other electronic components), disk storage (usually one or more hard disk drives, solid-state drives, optical disc drives, and in early models floppy disk drives); a computer keyboard, keyboard and computer mouse, mouse for input (computer science), input; and a computer monitor, monitor, computer speakers, speakers, and, often, a printer (computing), printer for output. The case may be oriented horizontally or vertically and placed either underneath, beside, or on top of a desk. Desktop Comput ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Branch (computer Science)
A branch, jump or transfer is an instruction in a computer program that can cause a computer to begin executing a different instruction sequence and thus deviate from its default behavior of executing instructions in order. ''Branch'' (or ''branching'', ''branched'') may also refer to the act of switching execution to a different instruction sequence as a result of executing a branch instruction. Branch instructions are used to implement control flow in program loops and conditionals (i.e., executing a particular sequence of instructions only if certain conditions are satisfied). A branch instruction can be either an ''unconditional branch'', which always results in branching, or a ''conditional branch'', which may or may not cause branching depending on some condition. Also, depending on how it specifies the address of the new instruction sequence (the "target" address), a branch instruction is generally classified as ''direct'', ''indirect'' or ''relative'', meaning that the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hard Coding
Hard coding (also hard-coding or hardcoding) is the software development practice of embedding data directly into the source code of a program or other executable object, as opposed to obtaining the data from external sources or generating it at runtime. Hard-coded data typically can be modified only by editing the source code and recompiling the executable, although it can be changed in memory or on disk using a debugger or hex editor. Data that is hard-coded is best suited for unchanging pieces of information, such as physical constants, version numbers, and static text elements. Soft-coded data, on the other hand, encodes arbitrary information through user input, text files, INI files, HTTP server responses, configuration files, preprocessor macros, external constants, databases, command-line arguments, and is determined at runtime. Overview Hard coding requires the program's source code to be changed any time the input data or desired format changes, when it might b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computer Program
A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to Execution (computing), execute. It is one component of software, which also includes software documentation, documentation and other intangible components. A ''computer program'' in its human-readable form is called source code. Source code needs another computer program to Execution (computing), execute because computers can only execute their native machine instructions. Therefore, source code may be Translator (computing), translated to machine instructions using a compiler written for the language. (Assembly language programs are translated using an Assembler (computing), assembler.) The resulting file is called an executable. Alternatively, source code may execute within an interpreter (computing), interpreter written for the language. If the executable is requested for execution, then the operating system Loader (computing), loads it into Random-access memory, memory and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stack (abstract Data Type)
In computer science, a stack is an abstract data type that serves as a collection (abstract data type), collection of elements with two main operations: * Push, which adds an element to the collection, and * Pop, which removes the most recently added element. Additionally, a peek (data type operation), peek operation can, without modifying the stack, return the value of the last element added. The name ''stack'' is an analogy to a set of physical items stacked one atop another, such as a stack of plates. The order in which an element added to or removed from a stack is described as last in, first out, referred to by the acronym LIFO. As with a stack of physical objects, this structure makes it easy to take an item off the top of the stack, but accessing a Data, datum deeper in the stack may require removing multiple other items first. Considered a sequential collection, a stack has one end which is the only position at which the push and pop operations may occur, the ''top'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conditional (computer Programming)
In computer science, conditionals (that is, conditional statements, conditional expressions and conditional constructs) are programming language constructs that perform different computations or actions or return different values depending on the value of a Boolean expression, called a ''condition''. Conditionals are typically implemented by selectively executing instructions. Although dynamic dispatch is not usually classified as a conditional construct, it is another way to select between alternatives at runtime. Terminology Conditional statements are imperative constructs executed for side-effect, while conditional expressions return values. Many programming languages (such as C) have distinct conditional statements and conditional expressions. Although in pure functional programming, conditional expressions do not have side-effects, many languages with conditional expressions (such as Lisp) support conditional side-effects. If–then(–else) The if–then or if ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
