Who was Ada Lovelace?
Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace lived from December 10, 1815 to November 27, 1852 and was an English mathematician and writer who was chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. Ada had an unusual upbringing for an aristocratic girl in the mid-1800s and at her mother's insistence, tutors taught her mathematics and science. Such challenging subjects were not standard fare for women at the time, but her mother believed that engaging in rigorous studies would prevent Lovelace from developing her father's moody and unpredictable temperament. At the age of 17, Ada met Charles Babbage, a mathematician and inventor. The pair became friends, and the much older Babbage served as a mentor to Ada. Through Babbage, Ada began studying advanced mathematics with University of London professor Augustus de Morgan. Ada described how codes could be created for the device to handle letters and symbols along with numbers. She also theorized a method for the engine to repeat a series of instructions, a process known as looping that computer programs use today. For her work, Ada is often considered to be the first computer programmer.
The Analytical Engine
The Analytical Engine incorporated an arithmetic logic unit, control flow in the form of conditional branching and loops, and integrated memory, making it the first design for a general-purpose computer that could be described in modern terms as Turing-complete. The logical structure of the Analytical Engine was essentially the same as that which has dominated computer design in the electronic era. The input, consisting of programs and data was to be provided to the machine via punched cards, a method being used at the time to direct mechanical looms. Three different types of punch cards were used: one for arithmetical operations, one for numerical constants, and one for load and store operations, transferring numbers from the store to the arithmetical unit or back. For output, the machine would have a printer, a curve plotter and a bell. The machine would also be able to punch numbers onto cards to be read in later. It employed ordinary base-10 fixed-point arithmetic
Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace lived from December 10, 1815 to November 27, 1852 and was an English mathematician and writer who was chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. Ada had an unusual upbringing for an aristocratic girl in the mid-1800s and at her mother's insistence, tutors taught her mathematics and science. Such challenging subjects were not standard fare for women at the time, but her mother believed that engaging in rigorous studies would prevent Lovelace from developing her father's moody and unpredictable temperament. At the age of 17, Ada met Charles Babbage, a mathematician and inventor. The pair became friends, and the much older Babbage served as a mentor to Ada. Through Babbage, Ada began studying advanced mathematics with University of London professor Augustus de Morgan. Ada described how codes could be created for the device to handle letters and symbols along with numbers. She also theorized a method for the engine to repeat a series of instructions, a process known as looping that computer programs use today. For her work, Ada is often considered to be the first computer programmer.
The Analytical Engine
The Analytical Engine incorporated an arithmetic logic unit, control flow in the form of conditional branching and loops, and integrated memory, making it the first design for a general-purpose computer that could be described in modern terms as Turing-complete. The logical structure of the Analytical Engine was essentially the same as that which has dominated computer design in the electronic era. The input, consisting of programs and data was to be provided to the machine via punched cards, a method being used at the time to direct mechanical looms. Three different types of punch cards were used: one for arithmetical operations, one for numerical constants, and one for load and store operations, transferring numbers from the store to the arithmetical unit or back. For output, the machine would have a printer, a curve plotter and a bell. The machine would also be able to punch numbers onto cards to be read in later. It employed ordinary base-10 fixed-point arithmetic
References
http://www.biography.com/people/ada-lovelace-20825323
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace
