The profession of a computer programmer is often perceived as a man’s. For this reason it is even more interesting that the first program developer in history was a woman: Ada Lovelace. The name of this English woman can rarely be found in any textbooks on history, mathematics, or programming, and her figure seems to be obscured by those of more well-known male scientists. Ada Augusta King Byron was born long before such terms as “programming”, “web design” or “Internet technologies” appeared, but as early as in the 19th century she became the developer of the first computer programs ever.

A poet’s daughter and lover of numbers

Being the only legitimate child of English poet George Gordon Byron and his wife Anna Isabella, Ada never lived with her father. Her parents got divorced, when the girl was just five, and Lord Byron left England forever. Ada was raised by her mother, one of whose hobbies was mathematics, and this was the reason why Byron had given her the nickname “the Queen of Parallelograms”. No one can say for sure today whether Ada imbibed this love of figures with her mother’s milk or if it was an inherent gift. The point was that as a child Ada remained bedridden for a year due to a severe illness and her mother invited not conventional teachers to work with her daughter but some mathematicians, who had already been quite popular at that time. There was a Scott among them called Augustus de Morgan, and Mary Sommerville, a famous female scientist in Britain specializing in mathematics and astronomy. Both served as role models for Ada. At the age of 19 Ada married Lord King, who was later made Earl of Lovelace. Luckily, neither her husband nor their three children, who were born in quick succession, prevented Ada from exercising her favorite science.

Babbage’s Difference Engine and the first programs

Ada’s life took a decisive turn when she met an outstanding mathematician, Professor Charles Babbage. By this time the scientist had already been known as the creator of a logarithmical machine that was able to make calculations with a precision up to the twentieth digit. This very device is generally accepted as being the first ‘computer’. An article written by Italian scientist Luigi Manabrea was published in France in 1843. Therein he described his observations of Babbage’s machine in operation, but it was Ada who translated the article into English.

However, her work was valuable not only because she adapted the text for English readers. Ada supplemented the article with her own elaborate commentary and explanations, which in turn became the basis of modern programming principles. Ada is said to be the author of such terms as “working cell” and “cycle” that are considered to be the fundamental constructions of structural programming. Other developments realized by Ada include the use of recurrent embedded loops to calculate Bernoulli numbers. Without going too deeply into the scientific terms, we can state that Ada Lovelace developed operational plans for an analytical machine that were unprecedented for her time. Despite working with dry figures and formulae, Ada managed to foresee the future and thought that her work had a much wider sphere for implementation than simple calculations. As she put it: “The essence and purpose of the machine will change depending on the information we insert in it. The machine will be able to compose music, paint pictures and show the science such ways that we have never and nowhere seen”.

Ada: a woman and a language… or In Ada’s memory

Ada published her first scientific work with only her initials mentioned — at that time the participation of women in scientific developments was not welcomed. Only many years later was the true value of Ada Lovelace’s work seen, and she was called the first female programmer. Now, on December 10th each year, the Countess of Lovelace’s birthday is celebrated as the ‘alternative’ Day of the Programmer. Though this day is not as popular among developers as the conventional 256th day of the year in September. Ada’s name is also immortalized in the name of a programming language that, incidentally, was approved on what would have been her birthday. That was in 1980 at the suggestion of the US Department of Defense as the single programming language for embedded systems. Those are just two of many tributes to Ada’s memory and achievements that most of us make use of each day. Contact us to get more information!