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The Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves.

Ada Lovelace, Notes on the Analytical Engine, 1843

Technology

The story behind the card

The line is from Note A, one of the notes Ada Lovelace added in 1843 to her English translation of an article on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine by the Italian engineer Luigi Menabrea; her notes ran to about three times the length of the article. The Jacquard loom used chains of punched cards to weave complex patterns automatically. Lovelace saw that cards could direct numbers and symbols in the same way, so the engine could do far more than arithmetic. Her Note G sets out, step by step, how the machine could calculate Bernoulli numbers, a sequence important in mathematics; it is often called the first published computer program.

Türkçe oku
Analitik Makine cebirsel desenler dokur; tıpkı Jacquard tezgâhının çiçek ve yaprak dokuması gibi.
Ada Lovelace, Analitik Makine Notları, 1843

Söz, Ada Lovelace'in 1843'te yazdığı notlardan Not A'da geçer. Lovelace, İtalyan mühendis Luigi Menabrea'nın Charles Babbage'ın Analitik Makinesi üzerine yazdığı makaleyi İngilizceye çevirmiş, çeviriye makalenin yaklaşık üç katı uzunlukta notlar eklemişti. Jacquard dokuma tezgâhı, karmaşık desenleri delikli kart dizileriyle kendiliğinden dokuyordu. Lovelace, kartların aynı biçimde sayıları ve simgeleri de yönetebileceğini, yani makinenin aritmetiğin çok ötesine geçebileceğini gördü. Not G'de ise matematikte önemli bir sayı dizisi olan Bernoulli sayılarının bu makinede nasıl hesaplanacağını adım adım anlatır. Bu, çoğu zaman yayımlanmış ilk bilgisayar programı olarak anılır.

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