From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.6 (2021-04-09) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.2 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_50,NICE_REPLY_A autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.6 Path: eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.misty.com!border2.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!buffer2.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.earthlink.com!news.earthlink.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2022 19:55:09 -0600 Subject: Re: Not only a language... Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada References: From: "25.BX943" <25BZ493@nada.net> Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2022 20:55:08 -0500 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:78.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/78.13.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Language: en-US Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com NNTP-Posting-Host: 98.77.165.67 X-Trace: sv3-V9v7vXcDtNlXRthpAoB5G51rV5/2RckIXiQwK3x4tMp3Q6uD8EmxeeEEQnMWwtQqSZ4ftfPkDK8oQRO!mRhumpJvGLtqNpXZxNMaTV+2AWUaqxqKF/zuXP9ifw7OgA3GVBF+5oFD6o2HWQpnfBgcmp6WR3Br!RM3Lphyw624mDcHuYSg= X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 X-Original-Bytes: 4398 Xref: reader02.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:63581 List-Id: On 2/27/22 2:55 AM, Robin Vowels wrote: > On Sunday, February 27, 2022 at 5:24:01 PM UTC+11, 25.BX943 wrote: >> On 2/25/22 11:42 AM, mockturtle wrote: >>> Now also a GPU is named after Ada Lovelace >>> https://www.pcgamer.com/nvidias-next-generation-ada-lovelace-gpus-are-rumored-to-consume-scary-amounts-of-power/ >> That's nice ... but does it have anything to do with >> her thoughts on computing machines ? :-) >> >> Babbage knew how to build a computer - but he was fixated >> on using them to create math tables for navigation and such. > . > That's how it started, but he progressed to develop > an "analytical engine" -- a computer, for which Ada Lovelace > wrote programs. Timeline ... she came in as he was trying to raise money for the 'analytical engine'. I think he'd sold exactly two of his 'difference engines' (to the Royal Navy I think) but nobody else was interested. Those were VERY complicated devices in and of themselves, very expensive to make. Babbage dropped in on Ada's hubby with a sales pitch. She sat in on his overly-tekkie description of the AE. The next morning she'd written a small program for the hypothetical device (it had one small bug). Her interest piqued, she struck up a closer association with Babbage (as pen-pals and 'biz partners' apparently, nothing naughtier was ever mentioned). She wrote up what amounted to sales ads for the thing - which tended to be half her own expositions on the subject. However Babbage never really did seem to see the wider possibilities of his AE. He still saw the use as doing practical math - just with more flexibility than the old DE. Ada was the only one who seemed to grasp the more exotic implication - anything that *could* be represented as numbers could be manipulated/analyzed/ transformed by such a machine. So, while Babbage is the god of computers, Lovelace is the goddess of modern "computing". Babbage's vision was severely limited by the hardware of the era - gears and cogs and cams. Lovelace's vision was not dependent on the hardware, you can easily code her programming examples into Python or Pascal, 'C' ... or Ada ... and they work. Alas her life was rather short - some disease, maybe cancer - and she spent her last couple of years totally doped-up and unable to pursue her ideas. In any case, they both had it right - but Babbage was the one thwarted by the tech. A remarkable set of people, just 100 years too early. The proto Woz and Jobs ??? Oh, and let's not forget that Babbage got his idea for the AE from the Jacquard loom when he visited Jacquard's factory - another inspired bit of tech. And yes Jacquard had his own 'systems programmer' in the back room, the only guy who knew how the control cards should be punched - the machine was probably HIS idea, but he gets no credit and nobody even seems sure of his name ... the boss slapped HIS name on it and that's all anyone remembers (sound familiar ? :-)