Computer Terminology Evolution

Sorry to tell you this but the term now has a different meaning within the web development community.If that bothers you then regain your composure by remembering that 'computer' once referred the operators of calculating machines - not the machines themselves:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer#EtymologyLanguage changes.

No, it’s a term of art. This discussion is sort of like someone complaining about the term computer being used to refer to both the electronic device and mid-century math whizzes.

Sorry, that was just a turn of phrase. For computers you can read "programming computers".

Where did the computer people get the term from?

I'm quite familiar with them. But the colloquial term "computer" isn't the same as the historical term, and that's the point here. We aren't talking about the job, or a design that wasn't implemented, or a mechanical computer because nobody means that when they say "computer".

Well, to be fair, you are questioning terminology bastardization in "computer science," a field that is named after "computers" and "science" but has little to do with either. One should temper their expectations :) Informatics, a commonly used term in Europe, would have been a much better name.

because 'computer' has a meaning now that it didn't have 65 years ago, and people are continuously getting confused by thinking that 'analog computers' are computers, as they understand the term 'computers', which they aren't; they're a different thing that happens to have the same name due to a historical accident of how the advent of the algorithm happenedthis is sort of like how biologists try to convince people to stop calling jellyfish 'j

My pet peeve in English terminology is the very word "computer". It should have always been called something like "the mathematical machine", computation is just one of them! The French l'ordinateur is much better.

"Computer" used to mean the job done by a human being. We chose to use the meaning to refer to machines that did similar tasks. Nobody quibbles about it any more.Words can mean more than one thing. And sometimes the new meaning is significantly different but once everyone accepts it, there's no confusion.You're arguing that we shouldn't accept the new meaning - not that "it doesn't mean that" (because that's not how language works).I think it

seems like no english noun is going to left safe from being duplicated into having the meaning of some type of software item