

Today is Ada Lovelace Day - jawns
http://findingada.com/ald-2012/

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jgrahamc
My choice for an inspirational woman pioneer in the computing field would be
Grace Hopper. Here she is on Letterman:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZOxtURhfEU>

~~~
baxrob
My choice is Edsger Dijkstra's mother, a lesser known, but, according to him,
profoundly gifted mathematician, who, incidentally, inspired him to some
heights of his own, better known, maths reasoning. Here she is in his papers:
[http://ewd.cs.utexas.edu.master.com/texis/master/search/mysi...](http://ewd.cs.utexas.edu.master.com/texis/master/search/mysite.html?q=mother)

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crntaylor
It's worth reading JGC's blog post about Ada Lovelace [1]. He argues that she
shouldn't be famous for being "the first computer programmer" (in fact it's
not clear that she ever really understood the difference engine/analytical
engine at all).

Instead, he says that she should be remembered for being the first person to
realize that calculating machines weren't limited just to problems of
arithmetic - that they might eventually be applied to music, art and other
areas. Very prophetic!

[1] <http://blog.jgc.org/2011/09/lovelaces-leap.html>

~~~
grey-area
_in fact it's not clear that she ever really understood the difference
engine/analytical engine at all_

I'd be interested to see some proof for this assertion. The article you
provide a link to, while interesting, contradicts your assertion in quoting
several who have studied her, and Lovelace herself, who foresaw many
applications for it and added copious notes to her translation of Bernoulli:

 _Many persons who are not conversant with mathematical studies, imagine that
because the business of the engine is to give its results in numerical
notation, the nature of its processes must consequently be arithmetical and
numerical, rather than algebraical and analytical. This is an error. The
engine can arrange and combine its numerical quantities exactly as if they
were letters or any other general symbols; and in fact it might bring out its
results in algebraical notation, were provisions made accordingly. It might
develope three sets of results simultaneously, viz. symbolic results (as
already alluded to in Notes A. and B.), numerical results (its chief and
primary object); and algebraical results in literal notation. This latter
however has not been deemed a necessary or desirable addition to its powers,
partly because the necessary arrangements for effecting it would increase the
complexity and extent of the mechanism to a degree that would not be
commensurate with the advantages, where the main object of the invention is to
translate into numerical language general formulæ of analysis already known to
us, or whose laws of formation are known to us. But it would be a mistake to
suppose that because its results are given in the notation of a more
restricted science, its processes are therefore restricted to those of that
science._ [1]

Given that Lovelace wrote the most comprehensive notes on the engine (quoted
above), and was the first to publish an algorithm for the engine in
collaboration with Babbage, it seems highly unlikely that she didn't
understand it. Furthermore, she saw farther than Babbage in outlining its use
for general computation rather than strictly mathematics (as outlined in the
quote above, and in the article by jgc).

Doubtless some people have exaggerated her role (though frankly I think more
people have tried to put her on a pedestal only to knock her down), and
perhaps she doesn't deserve the title of 'first programmer', however we don't
really know for certain the balance of their relationship or her full role,
and I think it's fair to say that she understood the engine given her
extensive notes on this translation and work with Babbage.

Here's what Babbage had to say about her contributions:

 _I then suggested that she add some notes to Menabrea's memoir, an idea which
was immediately adopted. We discussed together the various illustrations that
might be introduced: I suggested several but the selection was entirely her
own. So also was the algebraic working out of the different problems, except,
indeed, that relating to the numbers of Bernoulli, which I had offered to do
to save Lady Lovelace the trouble. This she sent back to me for an amendment,
having detected a grave mistake which I had made in the process._ [2]

He makes it sound like they collaborated and swapped ideas on the notes, and
she corrected an error in his algorithm - maybe they deserve credit for pair
programming too :)

[1]<http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/sketch.html>

[2]Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, Babbage

~~~
Luyt

      > The engine can arrange and combine
      > its numerical quantities exactly as if
      > they were letters or any other general symbols
    

print "".join(chr(c) for c in (83, 111, 117, 110, 100, 115, 32, 116, 111, 32,
109, 101, 32, 116, 104, 97, 116, 32, 115, 104, 101, 32, 100, 101, 115, 99,
114, 105, 98, 101, 115, 32, 97, 32, 115, 116, 114, 105, 110, 103, 32, 101,
110, 99, 111, 100, 105, 110, 103, 32, 104, 101, 114, 101, 46, 32, 73, 32, 116,
104, 105, 110, 107, 32, 116, 104, 101, 32, 65, 110, 97, 108, 121, 116, 105,
99, 97, 108, 32, 69, 110, 103, 105, 110, 101, 32, 109, 105, 103, 104, 116, 32,
104, 97, 118, 101, 32, 97, 108, 108, 117, 100, 101, 100, 32, 116, 111, 32, 97,
32, 98, 105, 103, 103, 101, 114, 32, 112, 117, 98, 108, 105, 99, 32, 105, 102,
32, 105, 116, 32, 104, 97, 100, 32, 98, 101, 101, 110, 32, 97, 98, 108, 101,
32, 116, 111, 32, 112, 114, 111, 99, 101, 115, 115, 32, 115, 116, 114, 105,
110, 103, 115, 32, 97, 115, 32, 119, 101, 108, 108, 32, 97, 115, 32, 110, 117,
109, 101, 114, 105, 99, 97, 108, 32, 100, 97, 116, 97, 46))

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angiemaguire
In celebration of Ada Lovelace day, we're running our inaugural Ladies Who
Code conference on Saturday October 20th in NYC. It's an all female lineup but
everyone is welcome to come and celebrate with us. 50% off today with code
'ADA' <http://bit.ly/PpZiFz>

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_corbett
Ada Lovelace involves from the site 1. Write about a woman in science,
technology, engineering or maths whose achievements you admire. 2\. Publish
your story online. 3\. Visit our directory of stories and either join up or
log in. 4\. Add your story to our collection. Tell your friends!

Not 0\. Debate whether a famous woman in tech has chops or not.

I'll start, Leah Busque and Paula Long. FTW.

~~~
cantastoria
Susan Kare <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Kare>

Who designed many of the original Mac typefaces, icons and marketing material.

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orangethirty
Nuuton is lucky to have two very smart women on the team. One is developing a
state-of-the-art crawling system and the other is developing an amazing
Javascript client system. Both are just amazing people. Congratulations to S
and A from Nuuton, and to those women who day-in, day-out make the tech world
move forward. Thanks for your contributions.

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bpfh
We named our daughter Ada after her, hoping that this would serve as a
reminder of what you can achieve through curiosity and passion.

Apparently in due observance of the ALD, she just sleepwalked for the first
time.

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stesch
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace#Controversy_over_e...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace#Controversy_over_extent_of_contributions)

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solsenNet
and don't forget, Stephanie Kwolek invented Kevlar!!

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laacz
What I'm curious about, is why Ada Lovelace day is not held on her birthday,
which is in December?

