ADA Lovelace-The first programmer!

-Ashita Naresh Agrawal Roll No.-1101 CO2G

Childhood of Ada.Ada was born on 10 December 1815.She was the child of the poet George Gordon Byron and his wife, Anne Isabella.Byron along with the people close to him expected his baby to be "the glorious boy"; as such they were disappointed that his wife gave birth to a girl. She was named after Byron's half-sister, Augusta Leigh, and was called "Ada" by Byron himself.Ada was often ill, beginning in early childhood. At the age of eight, she experienced headaches which obscured her vision.In June 1829, she was paralyzed after a bout of measles.She was taught mathematics from an early age.

Teenage of Ada.

From 1832, when she was seventeen, her remarkable mathematical abilities began to emerge.Her interest in mathematics

dominated the majority of her adult life.In a letter to Lady Byron, De Morgan

suggested that her daughter's skill in mathematics could lead her to become "an original mathematical investigator, perhaps of first-rate eminence“.

Adult years of Ada

Ada developed a strong relationship with Mary Somerville(a noted researcher and scientific author of the 19th century) who introduced her to Charles Babbage on 5 June 1833.She had a strong respect and affection for Somerville.Throughout her life, Ada was strongly interested in scientific developments and fads of the day, including  phrenology and mesmerism.Even after her famous work with Babbage, Ada continued to work on other projects.In 1844, she would comment to a friend about her desire to create a mathematical model for how the brain gives rise to thoughts and nerves to feelings ("a calculus of the nervous system").

Family Background of Ada

On 8 July 1835 she married William King, 8th Baron King, becoming Baroness King.In 1838, her husband was created Earl of Lovelace. Thus she was styled as “The Right Honourable the Countess of Lovelace"

She was the daughter of George Gordon Byron and Anne Isabella.

Meet with Charles Babbage

Ada Lovelace met and corresponded with Charles Babbage on many occasions, including socially and in relation to Babbage's Difference Engine and Analytical Engine.They first met through their mutual friend Mary Somerville.Ada became fascinated with his Difference Engine and used her relationship with Somerville to visit him as often as she could.In later years, she became acquainted with Babbage’s Italian friend Fortunato Prandi, an associate of revolutionaries.Babbage was impressed by Ada's intellect and writing skills. He called her "The Enchantress of Numbers". In 1843 he wrote of her:

Forget this world and all its troubles and ifpossible its multitudinous Charlatans – every thing

in short but the Enchantress of Numbers.

Charles Analytical Engine

During a nine-month period in 1842–43, Ada translated Italian mathematician memoir on Babbage's newest proposed machine, the Analytical Engine.Explaining the Analytical Engine’s function was a difficult task.Ada’s notes had to even explain how the Engine differed from the original Difference Engine.The notes made by Ada included a method for calculating a sequence of Bernoulli Numbers  with the Engine, which would have run correctly on the Analytical Engine been built.Based on this work, Ada is now widely credited with being the first computer programmer and her method is recognised as the world's first computer program.

Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine

Death of Ada

Ada Lovelace died at the age of thirty-six, on 27 November 1852, from uterine cancer probably exacerbated by bloodletting by her physicians.The illness lasted several months.She was buried, at her request, next to her father at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Hucknall, Nottingham.

First Computer Program

In 1953, over one hundred years after her death, Ada's notes on Babbage's Analytical Engine were republished.The engine has now been recognized as an early model for a computer and Ada's notes as a description of a computer and software.Ada's notes were labelled alphabetically from A to G.In note G, she describes an algorithm for the analytical engine to compute Bernoulli numbers.It is considered the first algorithm ever specifically tailored for implementation on a computer, and Ada is often cited as the first computer programmer for this reason; however, the engine was not completed during Lovelace's lifetime.

Conceptual leap in Ada’s notes

In her notes, Lovelace emphasized the difference between the Analytical Engine and previous calculating machines, particularly its ability to be programmed to solve problems of any complexity.Lovelace realized that the potential of the device extended far beyond mere number crunching.

She wrote:[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.

This analysis was a conceptual leap from previous ideas about the capabilities of computing devices, and foreshadowed the capabilities and implications of the modern computer.

Some Achievements of Ada

The computer language Ada, created on behalf of the United States Department of Defence, was named after Ada Lovelace.The reference manual for the language was approved on 10 December 1980, and the Department of Defence Military Standard for the language, "MIL-STD-1815", was given the number of the year of her birth.Since 1998, the British Computer Society has awarded a medal in her name and in 2008 initiated an annual competition for women students of computer science.The village computer centre in the village of Porlock, near where Ada Lovelace lived, is named after her.There is a building in the small town of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire named "Ada Lovelace House"."Ada Lovelace Day" is an annual event celebrated in mid-October