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Happy birthday, Ada Lovelace — the first computer programmer

by tomazstolfa on 12/10/12, 11:04 PM with 15 comments

• by mhartl on 12/11/12, 12:34 AM

  According to Wikipedia, it's probable that Lovelace's contributions are overrated; it would appear that Lady Ada has little claim to the title of "first computer programmer". [1] But if you're looking for a female computer hero, you're in luck: Grace Hopper developed the first compiler, popularized the term "debugging", and was an admiral in the Navy to boot. [2]

      In 1952 she had an operational compiler.
      "Nobody believed that," she said. "I had a 
      running compiler and nobody would touch it. 
      They told me computers could only do arithmetic."
  

  [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_lovelace#Controversy_over_...

  [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_hopper

• by Surio on 12/11/12, 2:42 AM

  Related discussion. Happened a while back here on HN:

  Marie Curie day: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4658763

  P.S: Posted previously on another Lovelace thread, but thread discussion had stopped by then.

• by Posibyte on 12/11/12, 1:30 AM

  Ada Lovelace was a legitimate child of Lord Byron and his wife Anne Isabella Byron. In fact, she was the only one. Just wanted to make that correction.

• by sftueni on 12/10/12, 11:34 PM

  ...I knew it, Dubstep and programming were meant to go together (referring to the last paragraph ;)