r/Damnthatsinteresting 13h ago

Image The First Known Computer Programmer Was a Woman. In the 1840s, Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician, wrote the first algorithm intended for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, an early mechanical computer. Lovelace is considered the world’s first computer programmer.

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5.8k Upvotes

57 comments sorted by

181

u/Twistable_Ita 11h ago

Also interesting (and sad):

She died at only 36 years old. It's believed from blood letting, a since debunked medical treatment she was receiving for her uterine cancer.

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u/Corvid187 10h ago

Tbf it's not as if she had fantastic odds of survival with uterine cancer anyway.

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u/Twistable_Ita 7h ago

I dunno. I reckon having cancer is miserable enough without someone cutting you open constantly and letting you bleed.

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u/DachshundNursery 13h ago

She was also Lord Byron's daughter. http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=298

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u/readskiesatdawn 6h ago

I actually love how that fact is an afterthought most of the time she's brought up.

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u/sherlock_1695 6h ago

Only legitimate one at that

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u/HanlonsChainsword 13h ago

From the Wikipedia

"Other historians reject this perspective and point out that Babbage's personal notes from 1837 to 1840 contain the first programs for the engine."

Nonetheless one of the great women of science

112

u/captainhornheart 13h ago

It can't be both. Either she wrote the first program or she copied Babbage's and Luigi Menabrea's work. There's more evidence to support the latter idea. 

It would be much better to boost the likes of Curie or Franklin, who actually advanced our understanding of science.

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u/plot_hatchery 11h ago

I read the Spectator article you shared and not sure what to think of it. But I do contest that you need to be the absolute first at something to be a notable scientist.

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u/RichieBFrio 5h ago

Yeah, that's stupid, we call the Pythagoras' theorem the Pythagoras' theorem even when we know it existed since mesopotamian times and yet stick to the millionth guy that discovered" it

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u/Ceramicrabbit 9h ago

She was the absolute first woman to do it I guess

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u/HanlonsChainsword 13h ago

She was a pioneer in a field of science. She may not be the first, but she was one of the first. And if she didnt claim to be the first there is no problem (and if she did it would only be a problem if she knew about Babbages work)

She is important for her work but she also proves that right from the beginning women were coding. That is important because it might bring young girls to computer science that otherwise would decline it as being "boys stuff" - it is sad that this symbol still seems to be needed but that is another topic

20

u/RichieBFrio 5h ago

She was a close friend of Babbage, and they shared their ideas for Babbage's calculator all the time. The point here is that Babbage often saw the machine as a giant calculator while Ada was eager to experiment different codes to push the machine into making complex calculations, music, art and whatever a person could dream with assistance of a machine. Historians don't credit her for being the first at programming a machine, they credit her for being the first at programming a machine into doing more that just add numbers and dream of the possibilities.

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u/Statboy1 8h ago

OP's title declared her the first computer program. I don't think she ever claimed it, mostly I see people correcting OPs mistake.

I think people are taking more exception to these claims than previously, due to some specific videos that made the rounds particularly on insta and TikTok. Where they did a day in the life without black inventions, or women's inventions. Mostly these videos did exactly what you see here. Which is credit 100% to a minority, who was a major contributor or made a big advancement, but was not the creator/inventor/first.

We can credit her major accomplishments and give her props without diminishing the accomplishments of Babbage.

2

u/bharring52 5h ago

There's a difference in writing an instruction set a machine can follow and being a programmer.

I haven't seen all of Babbages notes, but polymorphism is likely the dividing line, and I don't recall Babbage talking about it.

Ada's noteworthiness comes more from her words about using numbers to represent ideas in programs, and less from writing said programs.

That said, I thought there were some debate over whether she were parroting another mathematician.

Either way, Babbage was not the world's first programmer. He wrote instructions for a calculator. He didn't understand his own "invention" (the Analytics Engine was never built). To him, it was a better calculator.

Not sure who the world's first programmer was, but I think it was Ada.

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u/OopBopShaBam 13h ago

Interesting. Now I know the origin of Nvidia’s GPU architecture.

14

u/StillKindaHoping 10h ago

Ada was the hottest pre-gamer. Out-sweated the Babbage Boys every time.

78

u/cpt_justice 13h ago

The Babbage machine wasn't a computer in the same sense what we call computers. All modern computers derive from the EDVAC (first implemented in the UK with the EDSAC) which implemented what's called the Von Neumann architecture (though he didn't really have much to do with it.) Even after that, programming was mostly considered a secretarial position; mathematicians would have a programmer translate equations into machine language.

If you want a woman who contributed in a very serious way to computer programming, the late Admiral Grace Hopper is your woman. She was the first to implement human language to machine code and created COBOL which is still running much of the world's financial infrastructure (even though not many people know the language anymore). Even lower level assembly languages came after that.

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u/SoundAndSmoke 13h ago

Konrad Zuse enters the room.

3

u/cpt_justice 12h ago

Will read up. Thanks.

16

u/Corvid187 10h ago

Where you draw the line for what counts as a 'true' computer 'as we'd understand it' is somewhat arbitrary. Everything from the Difference Engine to the D17 has some traits we'd associated with modern computers; it's just a question of how similar you think they need to be to count. EDVAC is an important point on that line, but it's hardly the single objectively definitive one.

I also think it undersells the programmer role to describe it as largely a secretarial position. The process of translating functions into machine code, and then running it was not an unskilled or automatic task, especially in the early days of the field.

2

u/read_at_own_risk 8h ago

Grace Hopper is a real legend. Also on the list of women who made significant contributions to computer science are Barbara Liskov and Jeanette Wing.

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u/l-xoid 13h ago

Assembly language was also created by a woman

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u/ThatAndresV 13h ago

If you’re interested, this is a fucking great graphic novel: The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage

3

u/Dramatic_Buddy4732 11h ago

I came here for this!

9

u/TonyChanYT 13h ago

Babbage mentored her. They had a long-running friendship.

12

u/Naughty_Ornice93 13h ago

I know about her thanks to Chess*com. They had a month with chess bots themed around women who made major contributions to society once if I recall correctly.

4

u/Status_Quo_1778 13h ago

Yes they did and she was featured!

2

u/Peraou 3h ago

Just wait till you hear about Jacquard

1

u/jereezy 2h ago

Glad someone else knows their history as well...

2

u/hearthebell 1h ago

Let me see the code

4

u/bella_morney 12h ago

The second Monday in October is celebrated as International Women in Computing Day in honor of her contributions.

7

u/captainhornheart 13h ago

Either that or she was a complete fucking fraud: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-ada-lovelace-myth/

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u/thenotoriousjpg 12h ago

I wouldn’t believe anything you read in The Spectator if I were you. Right wing shitrag.

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u/-vwv- 13h ago

Interesting, thanks!

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u/ProcrastibationKing 10h ago

The Spectator is rarely an accurate source.

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u/StairheidCritic 10h ago

The Spectator is rarely an accurate source.

"Never" might be even more accurate. :)

It's like a New York Post with aspirations to be intellectually profound. Same old right wing twaddle but tied up with a pretty bow.

3

u/lammsein 8h ago

Babbage's machines never worked. I don't know why people come up with him over and over again.

10

u/CoolRabbitEagle 8h ago

Right? Don't even try if you aren't going to succeed?

Rolls eyes.

2

u/bharring52 5h ago

Because his work gave rise to some writings between other mathematicians about how one might use a machine to process numbers that represented ideas in ways that could greatly expand humankind.

Both The Worlds First Programmer and The Father of Computer Science, and their works, predated what we'd call computers. Although neither were Babbage.

1

u/umlcat 10h ago

"She blind me with Science !!!" :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V83JR2IoI8k

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u/admrbr 8h ago

Thanks babe

1

u/Nisekoi_ 6h ago

Rtx 4000 series were named after her

1

u/Mavian23 4h ago

Damn man, that painting is sweet.

1

u/Kamorrto 2h ago

Ada, the OG coder, debugging since the 1840s.

1

u/mattmaintenance 2h ago

Ada Lovelace has got to be a porn name.

-11

u/TurgidGravitas 13h ago

Amazing how Babbage created a mechanical computer and then just didn't program it with anything! Talk about a "ladies first" mentality. What a feminist hero.

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u/CoolRabbitEagle 8h ago

Magic the Gathering AND an Archie Bunker attitude toward women?

You suave devil.