Cracking coder – The legacy of Ada Lovelace | Hacker News Reader

Cracking coder – The legacy of Ada Lovelace

intelligentlifemagazine.com

6 pointspepys4 comments

I do not understand how people are not able to use the most basic reasoning.. or maybe it is me who is in grave error... since Charles Babbage invented the machines would he not know how to code them and run his own machines? The absurdity of this is astounding. Simply put, Charles Babbage was the first coder.

Not all of his machines were programmable.

When did he write a program for his Analytical Engine? Did he write the first program for it? Lovelace wrote a program for it while he was developing it, and people generally recognise her algorithm as being the first.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace

> Her notes on the engine include what is recognised as the first algorithm intended to be carried out by a machine. Because of this, she is often regarded as the first computer programmer.[1][2][3]

EDIT: Having checked your comment history I'm not surprised that you seek to minimise the woman's contribution.

Ahh yes please do go through my posts about how brains of women and men are not the same... might churn your stomach a bit. :)

Again some logic please... the man who created the machines would not know how to run them?

Since you love to quote wikipedia you could have scrolled down a little on the same page and seeen this -

Allan G. Bromley, in the 1990 essay Difference and Analytical Engines, wrote,[71]

    All but one of the programs cited in her notes had been prepared by Babbage from three to seven years earlier. The exception was prepared by Babbage for her, although she did detect a 'bug' in it. Not only is there no evidence that Ada ever prepared a program for the Analytical Engine, but her correspondence with Babbage shows that she did not have the knowledge to do so.

Blue plaque to Lovelace in St. James's Square, London

In his PhD thesis, Bruce Collier, who went on to write a biography of Babbage, claimed:

    It would be only a slight exaggeration to say that Babbage wrote the 'Notes' to Menabrea's paper, but for reasons of his own encouraged the illusion in the minds of Ada and the public that they were authored by her. It is no exaggeration to say that she was a manic depressive with the most amazing delusions about her own talents, and a rather shallow understanding of both Charles Babbage and the Analytical Engine

There is a google talk about Babbage's machines and the speaker also talked about Ada at the 36 min mark -- https://youtu.be/7K5p_tBcrd0?t=2190

Further links for your blithe mind to peruse - https://thonyc.wordpress.com/2012/12/26/christmas-trilogy-20...

http://www.salon.com/1999/03/16/feature_217/

http://www.juliansanchez.com/2012/10/16/much-ada-about-nothi...

Also sir, I would not "seek to minimize" anyone's work for who am I do anything of the sort. What I detest however, is the use of untrue things in order to push a narrative and this is a classic example of it. We are so wrapped up in conforming with the current political-correct thought-process that we are unable to perform critical reasoning of our own. Any thought process contrary to what is politically acceptable is now regarded as bigotry. Science is about cold-hard facts and not about what makes a person feel good.

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