as the title says. many people have told me that Ada Lovelace invented the first computer code. as far as i could find, she only invented some sort of calculation for Bernoulli (sorry for spelling) numbers.
seems to me like saying “i invented the cap to the water bottle, before the water bottle was invented”
did she do something else? am i missing something?
edit: ah! thank you everyone, i understand!!
In: Mathematics
Arguably Babbage himself was the first computer programmer as he also wrote algorithms that could be put onto the analytical engine, but Ada Lovelace is credited with it because she wrote some notes that clearly and explicitly show she understood you could use the analytical engine for “programs” beyond mathematical algorithms:
>[The Analytical Engine] might act upon other things besides *number*, were objects found whose mutual fundamental relations could be expressed by those of the abstract science of operations, and which should be also susceptible of adaptations to the action of the operating notation and mechanism of the engine…Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent.
As far as we can tell, Babbage did not arrive to this conclusion himself and “only” thought of his computer as a multipurpose calculator.
Imagine someone invented a bucket, then decided a smaller handheld bucket would be more useful and invented a water bottle, but never made one. Then you made a cap for the water bottle and said “this could revolutionize water consumption because you can invert it without spilling, pack and transport for mass production, ensure sterility until opened”, etc. The other guy discovered the water bottle and sort of thought it would be a more useful bucket, but you are the one which realized the applications of the invention.
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