CS378, History Of Computing
Week 4, Weekly Report
Due 2004 Sept 16

 

Ada Lovelace The first programmer???

 

In many texts it has been written that Ada Lovelace was the first person to write a computer program, however some have argued this to be untrue.  In this report we will look at how one author from the www.theregistar.co.uk reports that historians have overlooked and ignored possible evidence that Ada Lovelace was not the first programmer and may have been even less of a success then many historians have suggested in the past.

 

The general consensus of Ada Lovelace’s life have been that she was born by the famous poet Lord Byron, raised by her mother, and was educated in math.  She was then hired by Charles Babbage to translate and annotate a paper by Luigi Federico.  The historians go on to explain her ventures with Babbage and the Analytical machine, they state that she theorized and conceptualized with Babbage and wrote a “program” that in theory once the Analytical Machine was built could be run on it.  This program is said to be the first program making her the “first programmer.”

 

This history was confirmed in multiple sources (1)(2)(3) and when search’s on the internet were performed it was found that the above history was the common one given.  The reason theregistar.co.uk(4) article was chosen as a focus for this report was because the generalizations and presumptions it makes seems overstated and under represented, yet very intriguing.  It is intriguing because of notes provided in CBC(5) that point out that Lovelace might have really just aided in the proof reading of the computer programs that are said to be hers. Theregistar.co.uk takes this accusation even further by stating, “It's a matter of definition as to whether Babbage's engine could be programmed in any modern sense of the term.”, which suggests that peoples interpretation of Ada’s work is not only overstated but false because the system used to program Babbage’s Analytical Machine did not by definition require “programming.” 

 

Overall the report find’s theregistar.co.uk’s article to be overstated, the basis for its remarks are not grounded, nor noted in such a way as to be convincing.  The writing of the article seems to have been whimsical and quite brash, as if to play devils advocate.  To state that “Woolley shows that Ada was a considerable flirt, a gambler unable to win despite her application of mathematics to the subject, and somewhat addicted to opium.” (4), is a blatant attempt towards discrediting Lovelace’s work.  On the other hand, the CBC’s (5) declaration of Ada’s limited participation is more believable.  It’s statement’s of Babbage originally writing the programs makes sense.  The CBC’s notes are grounded by means of reference to documents that point out Babbage’s creation of the programs, they are also presented in such a way as to show that efforts had been made to look into the correspondence between Lovelace and Babbage.  The CBC’s culmination of using proper sources and clarifying specific short comings seems to bring us closer to understanding that though Ada Lovelace may have participated in computational history she was in fact not the first person to write programs, Charles Babbage deserves that honor.

 

 

 

 

Notes

 

1. “IEEEVM:  Ada Lovelace,” http://www.ieee-virtual-museum.org/collection/people.php?taid=&id=1234745&lid=1 (www.ieee-virtual-museum.org, accessed Sep 13)

 

2. “Ada Byron- Mother of Computer Programming,”  http://www.historypages.org/ada/ada_frameset.html (www.historypages.org, accessed Sep 13)

 

3. "Lovelace, Augusta Ada King, countess of." Encyclopædia Britannica.  http://80-search.eb.com.content.lib.utexas.edu:2048/eb/article?tocId=9049130&query=Ada%20Lovelace&ct= ( Encyclopædia Britannica Online, accessed 2004 Sept 13). A web page.

 

4. “Poet’s daughter was the first programmer… NOT”  http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/08/31/poets_daughter_was_first_programmer/ (www.theregistar.co.uk, accessed Sep 14)

 

5.  Allan G. Bromley. "Difference and Analytical Engines," Chap. 2 in Computing before Computers (Iowa State University Press, 1990). Available online from http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/DocumentArchive/Documents/Books/Computing Before Computers/CBC.html.