Re: Information Systems Annex was RE: Dispatching and generics -

[dewar@gnat.com (Robert Dewar)]

Kilgallen@SpamCop.net (Larry Kilgallen) wrote in message news:<r1usDG7Y2QvO@eisner.encompasserve.org>...

> They make the government change it to a decimal-based 
> system to suit computers.

That really was a small part of the motivation behind
the change, Britain's monetary system was a real mess
before the change, with crowns, guineas and pounds all
in simultaneous use as the primary currency unit. Also
the introduction of VAT really means that you want it
to be easy (for people) to compute percentages.

It also makes comparison shopping much easier.

As for computers, they could handle the old stuff just
fine, and indeed my uncle worked for Plesseys where
one of their early computers had registers implemented
with

   a row of decatrons  (for the pounds)

   a binary device and a decatron (for the shillings)

   a duodecatron (12 state decvice) for the pence

:-)
(this was a tube machine, where decimal devices made some reasonable hardware sense)