Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace: Analyst, Metaphysician, and Founder of Scientific Computing
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| Audience/Grade: | College Freshman-Continuing Education |
| Discipline(s): |
Computer Engineering Computer Science Computing Diversity Engineering Diversity Information Systems Information Technology |
| Special Topic(s): |
Women and Information Technology |
| Learning Resource Type: |
Reference - Article/Document |
| Media Type: |
Unknown |
| Author(s): |
Organization:San Diego Super Computer Center |
| Description: | Ada Lovelace Byron, the Romantic poet Lord Byron, credited as first visioning computer programming and the Ada programming language was named after her. This website provides a short biography. Excerpt: "Babbage had made plans in 1834 for a new kind of calculating machine (although the Difference Engine was not finished), an Analytical Engine. His Parliamentary sponsors refused to support a second machine with the first unfinished, but Babbage found sympathy for his new project abroad. In 1842, an Italian mathematician, Louis Menebrea, published a memoir in French on the subject of the Analytical Engine. Babbage enlisted Ada as translator for the memoir, and during a nine-month period in 1842-43, she worked feverishly on the article and a set of Notes she appended to it. These are the source of her enduring fame. Ada called herself "an Analyst (& Metaphysician)," and the combination was put to use in the Notes. She understood the plans for the device as well as Babbage but was better at articulating its promise. She rightly saw it as what we would call a general-purpose computer. It was suited for "developping [sic] and tabulating any function whatever. . . the engine [is] the material expression of any indefinite function of any degree of generality and complexity." Her Notes anticipate future developments, including computer-generated music." |
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| Keywords: | Ada Lovelace Charles Babbage History of Computing Ada Byron Countess of Lovelace |
| Usage Tip | |
| Use of Resource: |
History of computing |
| Difficulty: |
Easy |
| Interactivity Level: |
Very low |
| Version Info | |
| Publication Date: | February 2008 |
| Platform/Format: |
WWW |
| Cost: |
Free |
| Download URL: | http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/lovelace.html |
| Metadata: |
IEEE LOM Record |
| Collection: |
NEEDS
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