Monday, June 25, 2007

Giants in Computer History

The textbook briefly mentions Augusta Ada Byron, a British 10th century mathematician. What was her role in computer history, and how is she remembered?

Remember to include your name and a relevant URL in your comment.

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8 Comments:

Blogger Manny said...

Augusta Ada Byron (Lady Lovelace)
http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/WOMEN/love.htm

...in 1843, Lady Lovelace's prescient comments included her predictions that such a machine might be used to compose complex music, to produce graphics, and would be used for both practical and scientific use... (She was talking about a Computer)

...Ada suggested to Babbage writing a plan for how the engine might calculate Bernoulli numbers. This plan, is now regarded as the first "computer program." A software language developed by the U.S. Department of Defense was named "Ada" in her honor in 1979...

The Ada language was created in 1977 to standardized the Department of Defense (DOD) more than four-hundred-fifty programming languages to one.

“Ada” Source Code Example:

with Text_To; use Text_To
procedure hello is
begin
put("Hello World");
end hello


Manny Larson

11:28 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

She is considered the first computer programmer. She was the daughter of Lord Byron, the English poet. One of her patrons was Sir Charles Babbage, the inventor of the first mechanical computer. She wrote the "code" to run the machine. To honor her memory, the US Navy named one of its computer languages ADA.

jennifer
http://www.astr.ua.edu/4000WS/LOVELACE.html

5:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://www.cs.fit.edu/~ryan/ada/lovelace.html

Ada received mathematical tutoring from Augustus DeMorgan. Ada's mother had an interest in mathematics and the desire to encourage the rational aspects of Ada's character in opposition to the romantic influences of her father.
When she was 18, Ada heard a lecture about the difference engine designed by Charles Babbage. She gained the title the Countess of Lovelace. She has earned the reputation for being the first computer programmer.
She also has a computer language named after her Ada.

John Loser

5:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Augusta Ada Byron is best remembered today as the first computer-programmer, her development of a set of commands to repeat instructions in a ‘loop’ or ‘sub-routine’ becoming the basis for programming of computers..

http://kerryr.net/pioneers/ada.htm

Junji

6:04 PM  
Blogger Chad said...

Babbage himself wrote:
"some complicated programs of her own, the most complex of these being one to calculate the sequence of Bernoulli numbers."

For this reason she has earned the reputation for being the first computer programmer. (Though, of course, Babbage and others also had written “programs” for the never completed Analytical Engine.) The programming language Ada is named after her.

The Bernoulli polynomials satisfy

B'_(k+1)(x) = (k+1) B_k(x) and B_(2k+1)(0)=B_(2k+1)(1)=0 for l>0

so

B_0(x)=1, B_1(x)=x-1/2, B_2(x)=x^2-x+1/6, B_3(x)=x^3-3/2x^2+1/2x, B_4(x)=x^4-2x^3+x^2-1/30, ...

The constant terms B_k=B_k(0) are the Bernoulli numbers: 1, -1/2, 1/6, 0, -1/30, 0, 1/42, ...

(good stuff)

http://cs.fit.edu/~ryan/ada/lovelace.html

12:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ada Byron,was born December 10, 1815 the daughter of the illustrious poet, Lord Byron. Her parents separated just five weeks after she was born. She was brought up to be a mathematician and scientist. She had hopes to become "an analyst and a metaphysician".
Her predictions that came to be are a machine that could compose music, produce graphics, and can also benefit science and an engine that calculates Bernoulli numbers. Which eventually became the first computer program and eventually a software language developed by the U.S. Department of Defense.

dorothy

http://www.scottlan.edu/Lriddle/women/love.htm

6:53 PM  
Blogger Manny said...

Who is interested about Ada?

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ada.html

3:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Augusta Ada Byron was a mathematician from the 19th century, recognized as the world’s first programmer after writing her description of Babbage’s Analytical Machine which was capable of calculating Bernoulli numbers. This document contained what is considered the world’s first dedicated algorithm for usage on a computer.
For this achievement, in 1980, the DoD dedicated its programming language in her honor by naming it Ada.
-Carlos

3:46 PM  

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