Recently I started reading Computer Programming Fundamentals. Although this book was written half a century ago, I still found a lot of insights which is still up-to-date until now. While I faced the exercises in the first chapter, I decided to provide some answers here on my blog publicly.

This time I would like to deal with problem 1-2:

Would any of these devices or the devices mentioned in the chapter make a really major change in the performance of the cash register? Try to think of a device which would make a major change in performance.

To put this into context, in the chapter Leeds and Weinberg introduce a cash register, rather simplistic 50 years ago, but still a part of the computer history. The problem 1-2 then asks the reader to imagine additional devices which makes the cash register less error prone. Having served as a cashier about ten years ago, I think I have something to contribute on that.