Ada Lovelace and The Very First Computer Program
summary
Ada Lovelace authors Note G in the appendix of Luigi Menabrea’s translation that lays out an algorithm to compute Bernoulli numbers for Babbage’s analytical engine; the algorithm gets translated into a working JavaScript simulation that reproduces the sequence, revealing a minor typo bug in the original comments but correctable arithmetic. The machine is never built so the program never runs on Babbage’s hardware, yet the expanded translation formalizes machine-style instructions.
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chapters (11)
- 0:00Ada Lovelace and legacy
- 1:12Speaker background
- 3:42Ada Lovelace and family
- 7:38First computer program
- 13:15Babbage’s calculations
- 21:25Lovelace’s program step by step
- 24:38Program in JavaScript
- 28:09Was Lovelace first programmer?
- 34:28Babbage’s role in programming
- 37:19Why Lovelace first programmer
- 39:54Q&A
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