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The Curious Mind of Ada Lovelace
An anonymous reader writes "Going beyond the usual soundbites about Ada Lovelace, Amy Jollymore explores the life of the worlds first programmer: 'When I heard that Ada Lovelace Day was coming, I questioned myself, "What do I actually know about Ada Lovelace?" The sum total of my knowledge: Ada was the first woman programmer and the Department of Defense honored her contributions to computation in 1979 by naming its common programming language Ada.
A few Ada biographies later, I know Augusta Ada Lovelace to be an incredibly complex woman with a painful life story, one in which math, shame, and illness were continuously resurfacing themes. Despite all, Ada tirelessly pursued her passion for mathematics, making her contributions to computing undeniable and her genius all the more clear. Her accomplishments continue to serve as an inspiration to women throughout the world.'"
A few Ada biographies later, I know Augusta Ada Lovelace to be an incredibly complex woman with a painful life story, one in which math, shame, and illness were continuously resurfacing themes. Despite all, Ada tirelessly pursued her passion for mathematics, making her contributions to computing undeniable and her genius all the more clear. Her accomplishments continue to serve as an inspiration to women throughout the world.'"
It's my understanding that she was the first programmer, period. Babbage was designing the machine, but Ada actually designed the first algorithms for it to run, when it was complete.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Sounds about right for a programmer.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
...for someone to get her name correct.
That's enough pain for any woman to bear, in the height of Victorian prudery. Her mother, Anne Isabella Milbanke, was spurned scandalously by Byron at the time - it is said for the affections of his own half-sister, Augusta. That Ada's actual first name was also Augusta, as christened by Byron, only additionally confirms some of the difficulty. Isabella was also an avid mathematical amateur. Byron dismissively abused her as "the princess of parallelograms" in correspondence with friends and colleagues, after the estrangement. When he embarked for the continent, to escape the scandal, he never saw the infant Ada again...
Nor did he have further contact with the unfortunate Medora, his sister Augusta's daughter, who was evidently sired by Byron, roughly contemporary to the marriage with Isabella.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
"Her accomplishments continue to serve as an inspiration to women throughout the world."
Not to women, but to people of both sorts throughout the world.
Who wrote this tripe? Oh, right, an AC.
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Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
That is incredible sexist. Mathematicians (and Computer Scientists) honor their great ones equally, gender does not play a role. A bit of digging finds a few female mathematicians that are in all respects treated as Mathematicians and honored for their discoveries, not for being (or not being) women.
Maybe one reason why the gender-nonsense falls so obviously short here is that there is absolutely no gender component to the discoveries of these great people.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
She's been an inspiration to me (male) since I first read about her. Sheesh.
there is absolutely no gender component to the discoveries of these great people.
Not a problem. If we pretend everything is about gender long enough it'll be indistinguishable from the truth.
Any sufficiently advanced propaganda is indistinguishable from magic.
This is an old canard that gets trotted out in an attempt to encourage more women to enter computer science and related fields. The ends may be noble but the means are fraudulent.
Babbage wrote the first programs for his engine, which is a point even Lovelace's defenders acknowledge.
Are you proposing that the creator of the difference engine, Charles Babbage, could not program and did not know how to program his own invention?
Ada did not contribute anything, Charles exchanged letters with her, was most likely in love with her secretely, and as any man in love, gave her too much credit and projected the attributes he admires upon her, even though she had none.
So, here it goes
Ada's Origin
I think it's fair to say that Ada Lovelace and Marie Curie have not been under-publicized. But it's time to hear more about the mathematician Sophie Germain.
Seriously, I've been using it for just over thirty years and I'm fairly certain that it's in dire need of some patches.
http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/lovelace-the-origin-2/
written by a woman
Also, maybe even better and more telling for one single page:
http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=298
Herve S.
It is accepted that she never actually wrote the programs under discussion - the OP was Babbage, though she was certainly highly enthusiastic about the workings of his contraptions and their implications for the world, and studied the topics sufficiently to write insightful and interesting commentary to high degree.
Of all that is published though, only a selection is ever read by the masses.
-- "Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability." --Dijkstra
It appears to be still available as a podcast: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0092j0x At the time I remember being struck by the possibly of her being influenced by Arkwright's 'programmable' spinning machines
Rabid fans and the curious may enjoy this (very fictional) film about Ada's life: Conceiving Ada (1997)
Also more recently as part of the "Great Lives" series: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/greatlives/greatlives_20130917-1700a.mp3/
Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it.
Soulskill, what biographies did you read and which ones would you recomend?
Ada was also pretty good with the nose candy, but a lot of intellectuals were then. Freud, for instance.
I suppose Jolt Cola will approve of this.
If a woman like Ada Lovelace isn't inspiring men, those men might want to widen their self-concept.
Why the concern that an article celebrating a woman/women in computing is exclusive to the female gender? I don't see that intention in the second paragraph. Was there a note from the editor somewhere that it was meant to be gender-exclusive -- 'please, men, don't accidentally get inspired by this woman'?
Please.
Awesome