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In 1843 the English mathematician Ada Lovelace published notes on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, a mechanical computer that was designed but never built. Her Note G set out, step by step, how the machine could calculate Bernoulli numbers, and is often called the first published computer program.

Taylor's Scientific Memoirs, 1843

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The story behind the card

Lovelace (1815–1852) was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron, and her mother had her taught mathematics from an early age. In 1842 the Italian engineer Luigi Menabrea published an article in French about Babbage's machine. Lovelace translated it into English and added seven notes, labelled A to G, about three times longer than the article itself. They appeared in September 1843 in Taylor's Scientific Memoirs, signed only with her initials, A.A.L. Bernoulli numbers are a sequence of numbers important in mathematics, and Note G turned their calculation into a table of instructions for the machine. Babbage had drafted simpler sample programs a few years earlier but never published them, which is why calling her 'the first programmer' is debated. Her boldest idea is not in doubt: she saw that such a machine could work with symbols of any kind, not just numbers, and might even compose music.

Türkçe oku
İngiliz matematikçi Ada Lovelace 1843'te, Charles Babbage'ın tasarladığı ama hiçbir zaman yapılamayan mekanik bilgisayar Analitik Makine üzerine notlar yayımladı. G Notu'nda makinenin Bernoulli sayılarını nasıl hesaplayacağını adım adım gösterdi; bu not çoğu zaman yayımlanmış ilk bilgisayar programı olarak anılır.
Taylor's Scientific Memoirs, 1843

Lovelace (1815–1852), şair Lord Byron'ın kızıydı; annesi ona küçük yaşta matematik öğretilmesini istemişti. İtalyan mühendis Luigi Menabrea 1842'de Babbage'ın makinesi hakkında Fransızca bir makale yayımladı. Lovelace makaleyi İngilizceye çevirdi ve A'dan G'ye harflerle adlandırdığı, makalenin kendisinden yaklaşık üç kat uzun yedi not ekledi. Notlar Eylül 1843'te Taylor's Scientific Memoirs dergisinde, yalnızca A.A.L. baş harfleriyle yayımlandı. Bernoulli sayıları matematikte önemli bir sayı dizisidir; G Notu bu sayıların hesabını makine için bir komut tablosuna dönüştürdü. Babbage birkaç yıl önce daha basit örnek programlar hazırlamış ama yayımlamamıştı; bu yüzden Lovelace'a “ilk programcı” demek tartışmalıdır. Asıl cesur fikri ise tartışma götürmez: Böyle bir makinenin yalnızca sayılarla değil her türlü simgeyle çalışabileceğini, hatta müzik besteleyebileceğini öngördü.

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