Talk:Matchbox Educable Noughts and Crosses Engine

Finishing a game
In this section, it is not specified what the consequence is for MENACE if the game ends in a draw. This is significant in understanding how the machine learns, as the article indicates that draws are common. One might assume that a draw means that the beads are simply returned to their drawers, but if so this should be stated clearly. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.30.93.144 (talk) 04:04, 30 July 2020 (UTC)

Computer simulation
The article said that Michie wrote a program for an IBM Personal Computer. This is very unlikey, as Michie's work was done in the 1960s, but the IBM PC did not appear until 1981. The cited source simply refers to an IBM computer. I have therefore removed the word Personal.

I also used the opportunity to add link to the Pegasus computer mentioned in the same paragraph.

A very interesting article, by the way. -- Mike Marchmont (talk) 09:51, 30 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks, @, and thanks for fixing that  Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon? 15:17, 31 July 2020 (UTC)

Mscroggs
Hey @, I noticed you've added a couple of citations from Matthew Scroggs' Blog. It contains a lot of useful things, but I was wondering if it would be considered reliable as per WP:CITE, because it is a blog. Thanks :)  Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon? 10:44, 1 August 2020 (UTC)


 * Maybe not. I'm pretty sure the information about how the machine works is also in the Martin Gardner and Donald Michie articles that the blog post cites, so I'll dig those out and update the citations. &#8213; J u P it E er  (talk) 11:07, 1 August 2020 (UTC)

Analog Computer
Is this an Analogue computer? or a Digital Computer? I would say it would be a digital computer since the state of each matchbox is set by a finite number of permutations of balls within each matchbox. The entire computer could easily be simulated using an electronic digital computer. However, just because the matchbox's are not electronic, doesn't mean it doesn't qualify as a digital computer. If it was analog, you could have 1/2 a ball, or 1/8 of a ball, or any fraction of a ball in the box, which would vary the output. But, it doesn't work this way. It is either ball, or no ball. discrete values. It is quite possible to create an exact copy of the model that is run on this matchbox computer, and run this on another similar 'hardware', and would give exact same results. Again, this is another tenant of digital computers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.252.130.191 (talk) 22:33, 3 January 2021 (UTC)
 * You're quite correct, I'll switch "Analog" to "Mechanical". Thank you for pointing this out.  Wiki Macaroons Cinnamon? 11:19, 18 January 2021 (UTC)