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Happy Ada Lovelace Day (findingada.com)
Today is Ada Lovelace Day, a time to celebrate the achievements of women in STEM fields. Several publications have put together lists of notable women to commemorate the day, such as tech pioneers, robotics experts, and historical engineers and scientists. Other are taking the opportunity to keep pushing against the elements of tech culture that remain sexist. From the BBC:
On Ada Lovelace Day, four female engineers from around the world share their experiences of working in male-dominated professions. When Isis Anchalee's employer OneLogin asked her to take part in its recruitment campaign, she didn't rush to consult the selfie-loving Kardashian sisters for styling tips. "I was wearing very minimal make-up. I didn't brush my hair that day," she said. But the resulting image of Ms Anchalee created a social media storm when it appeared on Bart, the San Francisco metro. Lots of people questioned whether she really was an engineer. "It was not just limited to women — it resonates with every single person who doesn't fit with what the stereotype should look like," she said.
"My parents, my brother, my community, all were against me," said Sovita Dahal of her decision to pursue a career in technology. "I was going against traditional things. In my schooldays I was fascinated by electronic equipment like motors, transformers and LED lights. Later on this enthusiasm became my passion and ultimately my career," she said.
"My parents, my brother, my community, all were against me," said Sovita Dahal of her decision to pursue a career in technology. "I was going against traditional things. In my schooldays I was fascinated by electronic equipment like motors, transformers and LED lights. Later on this enthusiasm became my passion and ultimately my career," she said.
Church's lambda calculus did not run on a real machine at the time. Neither did LISP at the time of its invention. Based on what's known of the analytical engine, Ada Lovelace's programs would have run correctly.
Very much early computer science was not done on actual computers, especially in the 1950s in mainland Europe. I remember going to a talk by Dijkstra shortly before his death where he talked about this a bit. Things were so wiped out after the war that no one could afford a computer. So they did stuff on paper.
But by your measure, you've just dismissed Dijkstra's early years as nothing more than a software architect.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Ada Lovelace gets the role because she was the first "programmer" (male or female) for a hypothetical automatic computation machine. Not for being first female STEM major, or first female scientist, or first feminist, or anything like that. People used to be proud of her for being the first programmer. Being the first tends to be the person that gets remembered.
Ok, her being a "programmer" is slightly dubious, as no such machine existed. But in computer science terms she layed out the abstract framework for programming.
Nope, they're just assholes. Any other questions?