TIL that the first computer programmer was a woman. Her name was Ada Lovelace.
TIL that the first computer programmer was a woman. Her name was Ada Lovelace.
Ada Lovelace, English mathematician, an associate of Charles Babbage, for whose digital computer prototype, the Analytical Engine, she created a program in 1843. She has been called the first computer programmer. Ada Lovelace Day, the second Tuesday in October, honors women’s contributions to scienc...
Grace Hopper invented the compiler!
5Another interesting tidbit is her father was Lord Byron, the famous poet. He actually abandoned her and her mom after birth. This made Ada become more math oriented since her mom wanted her to be independent and a logical thinker.
4she understood that the analytical engine/mechanical computer could be used symbolically, way beyond the numerical calculations that babbage built it for.
she foresaw how powerful that could be. when she was dying (of ovarian cancer), she said i would give all the days i have left for just three days a hundred years from now.
4This was like the first thing we learned in history of computers in university.
4I would have guessed you’d have learned about Charles Babbage first
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Okay I don't have the time to research this, but if this is the reason Adafruit is called Adafruit then that is fucking sick
0It is indeed. It’s based off the founders online username “LadyAda” which was an homage to Ada Lovelace. The founder is Limor Fried, she’s pretty awesome.
3There’s also a programming language originally used for missile guidance called Ada, I had to learn it in university back in the dark ages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_(programming_language)
Please know I’ve never designed missile guidance systems.
2Pretty sure the founder even goes by Lady Ada as an homage to Ada Lovelace so yes it seems likely.
0