The device above is called the Pascaline. It was invented by Blaise Pascal. His father ran a business and as Pascal noticed how much and how terrible work it was to get the bookkeeping done well, he made this device to help his father calculate things through. It was developed with the French currency of the time in mind, and is technically a mechanical calculator. Although the device was in high demand it never was a true success due to the production costs being too high.

This device is often seen as the very first computer, however that claim is controversial, as the Pascaline is not what we call on our own yargon Turing-complete. The two gigantic devices used in WWII to decipher encrypted messages from Nazi Germany were the first known devices to be Turing-complete (the term is named after Alan Turing). Although these devices may never have unleashed the digital revolution if the microchip wasn't invented later, they are due to their being Turing complete as the first real computers. They were also the first to use electric signals where the Pascaline is purely mechanical.

Now what do you think? Did Blaise Pascal actually invent a computer or not?
Most professionals say he did not due to the Pascaline not being Turing-Complete, but some do regard it like that or at least a pre-dessor. Well? What do you think?

(The programming language Pascal was named after Blaise Pascal, but Pascal was already dead by that time. The inventor of the language had great admiration for Pascal and name the language in his honor, that's all).

are you the real jeroen broks

if you are the real one you are the best!

When people are like that I always feel a bit awkward.

Well, depends on which person you were expecting, but my name is really Jeroen Broks... Jeroen Petrus Broks is my full name. I also use my own name on Facebook, Twitter, Game Jolt, Itch.io and the sites I own myself. (And on YouTube I am "TheRealTricky").

you are him!

I guess I am.... Why did you ask? Do I know from a different site?

I think it is

It really depends on your definition of "computer". You could argue that an Abacus is a computer, you could argue that a person doing the calculations is a computer, you could argue that a computer needs to be electronic (which would probably point to something like the Zuse Z2 as the first computer, I guess),... Limitless options...

The first machine that everybody acknowledges as a computer is the colossus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer, although there is a bit of debate as in the USA a similar machine was built, and some debate is there which one is older. Both machines had the same purpose... The Germans did encrypt their messages in order to make them unreadable for the enemy during WWII. Even though they were in German, there were still English and Americans who had understanding of the German language (for obvious reasons). These computers were used to automatically find the right encryption keys so they could decipher the message, as humans doing it would take more years than a human lifespan provides. They were built in the period 1942-1945. They were also the first programmable devices, although some women had to climb into them and place some tubes or set some switches in order to program them, in stead of typing code, like we do today. Although the Z2 is older, I think the key lies in being programmable and thus being Turing-complete in being recognized or not. I could not find much info about that about the Z2.

Indeed some people do claim that if the Pascaline was a computer the abacus could be seen as a computer as well, although the Pascaline could be used in a more automated manner than an abacus. The Pascaline and an abacus are at least both not programmable, that's for sure.

I think it is!
nice post by the way i enjoyed reading it thanks!

If it can calculate than its technical a computer

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

Hmm, good one... I didn't find any references to that when I did my own research on what I stated above, yet the same issue (I could not find the answer to that in the wiki-article, but I didn't have time to read it all yet, so maybe I can find the answer somewhere) if it can be regarded as Turing-complete, which is for computer professionals mostly a very notable thing (To be Turing-complete a device must technically be usable to perform any mathematical action, at least that's the most important requirement) as is the same discussion as we have about the Pascaline. Now loads of inventions are kind of "re-inventions" of things of which the "re-inventor" had no idea of the original invention, and I deem it likely Pascal never knew about this Greek invention, although I'll need to sort that out (The article about the Antikuthera mechanism makes no mention of the Pascaline and vice versa, as far I could see with ctrl-f)...

Let me rephrase my main question then... Did Pascal actually build a computer or not?

This is what Google says I guess

Yeah, the ENIAC and the Collussus can both pop up depending on which source you use to look it up.... Both machines were built around the same time for the same purpose also. This is indeed with earlier machines (including the Pascaline) to be ignored, most likely because the ENIAC and Collossus were the first machines to be Turing complete....

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I'm not super familiar with this device but I know it could receive inputs and process simple mathematical problems of arithmetic. However, I'd classify it based on whether or not it can store and retrieve data, do you know if it could? If so, I'd call it a computer, if not, then I'd just call it a calculator or math machine.

Well storing data is a great word. A basic calculator, which actually is a computer, can store one number in the memory, and nothing more (With M+, M-, MR, and MC). For this device, I do not know about "storing" data, but what I do know is that each time you wanted to use it for a new mathematical issue, you had to entirely reset that thing, otherwise the number from your last calculation would still be in it. The question is if you can regard that is 'storage'... After all it is possible to leave that number on the screen for several days in case the number on the display would still be important later...

Nope.