Today is Ada Lovelace Day

http://findingada.com/ald-2012/

by jawns • 14 years ago

101 18 14 years ago

crntaylor2• 14 years ago

It's worth reading JGC's blog post about Ada Lovelace [1]. He argues that she shouldn't be famous for being "the first computer programmer" (in fact it's not clear that she ever really understood the difference engine/analytical engine at all).

Instead, he says that she should be remembered for being the first person to realize that calculating machines weren't limited just to problems of arithmetic - that they might eventually be applied to music, art and other areas. Very prophetic!

[1] http://blog.jgc.org/2011/09/lovelaces-leap.html

TeMPOraL• 14 years ago

Also it's worth reading JGC today's post about Marie Skłodowska-Curie as a role-model and a symbol of women's achievements in science and technology:

http://blog.jgc.org/2012/10/marie-curie-day.html

grey-area• 14 years ago

in fact it's not clear that she ever really understood the difference engine/analytical engine at all

I'd be interested to see some proof for this assertion. The article you provide a link to, while interesting, contradicts your assertion in quoting several who have studied her, and Lovelace herself, who foresaw many applications for it and added copious notes to her translation of Bernoulli:

Many persons who are not conversant with mathematical studies, imagine that because the business of the engine is to give its results in numerical notation, the nature of its processes must consequently be arithmetical and numerical, rather than algebraical and analytical. This is an error. The engine can arrange and combine its numerical quantities exactly as if they were letters or any other general symbols; and in fact it might bring out its results in algebraical notation, were provisions made accordingly. It might develope three sets of results simultaneously, viz. symbolic results (as already alluded to in Notes A. and B.), numerical results (its chief and primary object); and algebraical results in literal notation. This latter however has not been deemed a necessary or desirable addition to its powers, partly because the necessary arrangements for effecting it would increase the complexity and extent of the mechanism to a degree that would not be commensurate with the advantages, where the main object of the invention is to translate into numerical language general formulæ of analysis already known to us, or whose laws of formation are known to us. But it would be a mistake to suppose that because its results are given in the notation of a more restricted science, its processes are therefore restricted to those of that science.[1]

Given that Lovelace wrote the most comprehensive notes on the engine (quoted above), and was the first to publish an algorithm for the engine in collaboration with Babbage, it seems highly unlikely that she didn't understand it. Furthermore, she saw farther than Babbage in outlining its use for general computation rather than strictly mathematics (as outlined in the quote above, and in the article by jgc).

Doubtless some people have exaggerated her role (though frankly I think more people have tried to put her on a pedestal only to knock her down), and perhaps she doesn't deserve the title of 'first programmer', however we don't really know for certain the balance of their relationship or her full role, and I think it's fair to say that she understood the engine given her extensive notes on this translation and work with Babbage.

Here's what Babbage had to say about her contributions:

I then suggested that she add some notes to Menabrea's memoir, an idea which was immediately adopted. We discussed together the various illustrations that might be introduced: I suggested several but the selection was entirely her own. So also was the algebraic working out of the different problems, except, indeed, that relating to the numbers of Bernoulli, which I had offered to do to save Lady Lovelace the trouble. This she sent back to me for an amendment, having detected a grave mistake which I had made in the process.[2]

He makes it sound like they collaborated and swapped ideas on the notes, and she corrected an error in his algorithm - maybe they deserve credit for pair programming too :)

[1]http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/sketch.html

[2]Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, Babbage

Luyt• 14 years ago

  > The engine can arrange and combine
  > its numerical quantities exactly as if
  > they were letters or any other general symbols

print "".join(chr(c) for c in (83, 111, 117, 110, 100, 115, 32, 116, 111, 32, 109, 101, 32, 116, 104, 97, 116, 32, 115, 104, 101, 32, 100, 101, 115, 99, 114, 105, 98, 101, 115, 32, 97, 32, 115, 116, 114, 105, 110, 103, 32, 101, 110, 99, 111, 100, 105, 110, 103, 32, 104, 101, 114, 101, 46, 32, 73, 32, 116, 104, 105, 110, 107, 32, 116, 104, 101, 32, 65, 110, 97, 108, 121, 116, 105, 99, 97, 108, 32, 69, 110, 103, 105, 110, 101, 32, 109, 105, 103, 104, 116, 32, 104, 97, 118, 101, 32, 97, 108, 108, 117, 100, 101, 100, 32, 116, 111, 32, 97, 32, 98, 105, 103, 103, 101, 114, 32, 112, 117, 98, 108, 105, 99, 32, 105, 102, 32, 105, 116, 32, 104, 97, 100, 32, 98, 101, 101, 110, 32, 97, 98, 108, 101, 32, 116, 111, 32, 112, 114, 111, 99, 101, 115, 115, 32, 115, 116, 114, 105, 110, 103, 115, 32, 97, 115, 32, 119, 101, 108, 108, 32, 97, 115, 32, 110, 117, 109, 101, 114, 105, 99, 97, 108, 32, 100, 97, 116, 97, 46))

jgrahamc2• 14 years ago

> (in fact it's not clear that she ever really understood the difference engine/analytical engine at all).

I don't believe that.

crntaylor2• 14 years ago

Apologies for mis-stating your position. Annoyingly, it's now too late to edit my post. I can delete it instead if you like.

I got the impression that it wasn't clear how much she understood of the workings of the DE/AE from reading your blog post, and then some further reading on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_lovelace#Controversy_over_e...

_corbett• 14 years ago

Ada Lovelace involves from the site 1. Write about a woman in science, technology, engineering or maths whose achievements you admire. 2. Publish your story online. 3. Visit our directory of stories and either join up or log in. 4. Add your story to our collection. Tell your friends!

Not 0. Debate whether a famous woman in tech has chops or not.

I'll start, Leah Busque and Paula Long. FTW.

cantastoria2• 14 years ago

Susan Kare http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Kare

Who designed many of the original Mac typefaces, icons and marketing material.

cantastoria2• 14 years ago

Carol Bartz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Bartz

Even though she blew it at Yahoo she was great for Autodesk.

angiemaguire• 14 years ago

In celebration of Ada Lovelace day, we're running our inaugural Ladies Who Code conference on Saturday October 20th in NYC. It's an all female lineup but everyone is welcome to come and celebrate with us. 50% off today with code 'ADA' http://bit.ly/PpZiFz

jgrahamc2• 14 years ago

My choice for an inspirational woman pioneer in the computing field would be Grace Hopper. Here she is on Letterman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZOxtURhfEU

wazoox• 14 years ago

Unfortunately I couldn't find a decent Grace Hopper T-Shirt recently. There was the cobol.com t-shirt a couple of years ago, but it definitely should have used a more attractive picture...

baxrob• 14 years ago

My choice is Edsger Dijkstra's mother, a lesser known, but, according to him, profoundly gifted mathematician, who, incidentally, inspired him to some heights of his own, better known, maths reasoning. Here she is in his papers: http://ewd.cs.utexas.edu.master.com/texis/master/search/mysi...

solsenNet• 14 years ago

and don't forget, Stephanie Kwolek invented Kevlar!!

stesch• 14 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace#Controversy_over_e...

orangethirty• 14 years ago

Nuuton is lucky to have two very smart women on the team. One is developing a state-of-the-art crawling system and the other is developing an amazing Javascript client system. Both are just amazing people. Congratulations to S and A from Nuuton, and to those women who day-in, day-out make the tech world move forward. Thanks for your contributions.

bpfh• 14 years ago

We named our daughter Ada after her, hoping that this would serve as a reminder of what you can achieve through curiosity and passion.

Apparently in due observance of the ALD, she just sleepwalked for the first time.

laacz• 14 years ago

What I'm curious about, is why Ada Lovelace day is not held on her birthday, which is in December?

Today is Ada Lovelace Day

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