On this day in 1995, Konrad Zuse died. Zuse, an independent German inventor, developed the Z1, Z2, Z3 , and Z4 computers during the early 1940's. The first models featured mainly mechanical systems, and were destroyed by Allied bombing in WWII. The the later models used electrical relays. There is some dispute over who created the first computer, but there is no doubt Zuse's machines were among the first programmable devices.
While Allen Turing helped the allies apply new computing technology to the code breaking effort, the Nazis showed no interest when Zuse volunteered to help.
While building his computers, Konrad Zuse developed the Plankalkül computer language. Zuse wrote sample program to prove his machines would work, including a chess playing program. The language feature loops, conditional statements and a variable naming similar to Hungarian notation.
Also, on this date in 1997 the HTML 4.0 specification was first released as a W3C specification. The spec contained many features we take for granted today, such as scripting, style sheets, frames.
2 comments:
Zuse is the Anglicized spelling of his name which included an umlaut. Since the Z is soft in German, the correct pronounciation should be "Suess"
Zuse is also a dead ringer for Ted Geisel. If you look at the portrait provided in the hardback version of Zuse' biography. It matches the photo of Geisel on the Wackenhut art gallery window down in Laguna Beach.
During WWII Ted Geisel was an unpopular nerd from Dartmouth with a training film. The most popular character in the film said it was "cold enough in Europe to freeze the nuts off a jeep."
According to his biography, Robert Murphy (M) and Kermit Roosevelt of the OSS sent him to Bastogne right before the Battle of the Bulge, suggesting (to me) that the attack was no more surprising than Pearl Harbor or 9-11 had been. How could the German offensive be a surprise if we were reading all their coded messages?
When asked by the Germans to surrender, General McCaulliffe said "Nuts!"
And today, Mar 2nd, is another famous Seusse's birthday. I guess we could call him: Dr. Zuse.
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